ECE2018 Poster Presentations: Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Cardiovascular Endocrinology and Lipid Metabolism (25 abstracts)
1Endocrinology and Nutrition Unit, Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves, Granada, Spain; 2Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria de Granada (Ibs.GRANADA), Granada, Spain; 3CIBERFES. Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain; 4Endocrinology and Nutrition Unit, Hospital Universitario Campus de la Salud, Granada, Spain; 5Department of Biostatistical, University of Granada, Granada, Spain; 6Proteomic Research Service, Fundación para la Investigación Biosanitaria de Andalucía Oriental- Alejandro Otero, Granada, Spain; 7Endocrinology Division, Hospital General de Ciudad Real, Ciudad Real, Spain; 8Department of Medicine. University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a health issue, worldwide, particularly in individuals with diabetes. The identification of CVD biomarkers can improve risk stratification. Sclerostin is a modulator of the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway in different tissues, and has recently been linked to vascular biology.
Objectives: Our objective was to evaluate the relationship between circulating sclerostin levels and cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular mortality in individuals with and without type 2 diabetes.
Material and methods: A cohort of 130 participants (mean age 56.8 years; 75 with type 2 diabetes; 46 with prevalent CVD), were followed-up for 7 years. Time to death (both of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular causes) was assessed to establish the relationship between sclerostin and mortality. Serum sclerostin levels were measured at the baseline.
Results: Serum sclerostin concentrations were significantly higher in patients with prevalent CVD (P<0.001), and independently associated with cardiovascular mortality (P=0.008), showing sclerostin to be a stronger predictor of mortality than other classical risk factors (area under the curve = 0.849 vs 0.823). The survival analysis showed that an increase of 10 pmol/l in the serum sclerostin level resulted in a 31% increase in cardiovascular mortality. No significant association was observed between sclerostin levels and non-cardiovascular mortality (P=0.346).
Conclusions: High sclerostin levels are related to mortality due to cardiovascular causes. The clinical implication of these findings is based on the possible use of serum sclerostin as a new biomarker of cardiovascular mortality risk in order to establish preventive strategies.