Howard Carter - Repeat it to beat it: health benefits of repeated ischaemic preconditioning

Insulin resistance is a central feature of T2DM and is the primary target for therapy. Nevertheless, the pathological consequences of T2DM predominantly relate to cerebro- and cardiovascular disease (CVD), representing the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in T2DM. Up to 60% of all deaths in T2DM are directly related to CVD, whilst patients with T2DM develop microvascular complications (e.g. retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy).

Clinically, these complications result in blindness, kidney failure and nerve damage. An early step in the progression of CVD is the development of endothelial dysfunction, which promotes development of both arterio- and atherosclerosis, contributes to structural arterial changes, and predicts development of CVD.

Ischaemic Preconditioning (IPC)

IPC relates to short sequences (5-min) of repeated inflation and deflation of a cuff on a limb (3-4 cycles). IPC is found to render local and systemic protection against damage to the cardiovascular system. Currently, IPC has proven effective to reduce cardiac damage and improve clinical outcome when applied prior to cardiac surgery. Moreover, previous work established the clinical benefits of applying IPC in the ambulance to reduce the consequences of a myocardial infarct. Despite these potent effects of a single IPC session, little work has been done to investigate the effect of daily regularly conducted IPC.

The aim of this project is to explore the impact of IPC, as a novel, cheap, simple, and non-invasive tool to enhance cerebrovascular function and improve cardiovascular function and risk in T2DM.