Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Jan 7: Type 2 diabetes can quietly alter the heart’s structure and disrupt its energy production, significantly increasing the likelihood of heart failure, according to new research that sheds light on the biological link between the two conditions.
Scientists from the University of Sydney examined donated human heart tissue and found that diabetes interferes with the way heart cells generate energy, weakens the muscle’s structural integrity, and promotes the accumulation of stiff, fibrous tissue. These changes reduce the heart’s ability to contract efficiently and pump blood effectively.
The harmful effects were found to be especially severe in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy, the most common cause of heart failure worldwide.
The findings, published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, help explain why people living with type 2 diabetes face a substantially higher risk of developing heart failure compared to those without the condition.
“We’ve known for a long time that diabetes and heart disease are closely linked, but this is the first study to examine diabetes and ischemic heart disease together and identify a distinct molecular signature when both are present,” said Dr. Benjamin Hunter from the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Sydney.
“Our results show that diabetes changes how the heart produces energy, how it maintains its structure under stress, and how it contracts,” he explained. “Using advanced microscopy, we could directly observe damage to the heart muscle, particularly the build-up of fibrous tissue that stiffens the heart.”
To gain clearer insights, the research team analysed heart tissue from transplant patients as well as healthy donors. Studying real human hearts allowed the scientists to observe the direct impact of diabetes on cardiac biology, rather than relying solely on animal-based models.
The study concluded that diabetes is not merely an accompanying condition in heart disease but an active driver of heart failure. By disrupting critical metabolic processes and reshaping heart muscle at the microscopic level, diabetes accelerates the progression of cardiac dysfunction.
“The metabolic impact of diabetes on the human heart is still not fully understood,” Dr. Hunter noted.
In healthy hearts, most energy comes from fats, with glucose and ketones also playing a role. During heart failure, the heart typically shifts toward using more glucose. However, diabetes impairs this adaptive response by reducing insulin sensitivity in heart cells, further compromising the heart’s ability to meet its energy demands.
Researchers say these insights could help pave the way for more targeted treatments aimed at protecting heart health in people with diabetes and reducing their long-term risk of heart failure.