Galectin‐3 and risk of cardiovascular events and all‐cause mortality in type 2 diabetes

Abstract

Aims Recent clinical studies have shown that galectin‐3 is a prognostic indicator in patients with coronary heart disease and in patients with heart failure. Experimental data suggest that galectin‐3 may play a role in atherogenesis. We have evaluated whether serum galectin‐3 level is associated with cardiovascular outcome in type 2 diabetes. Materials and methods Galectin‐3 was measured in baseline samples in 1495 persons with type 2 diabetes. The primary cardiovascular outcome, incident cardiovascular events, was defined as first non‐fatal myocardial infarction, non‐fatal stroke, coronary revascularization, or death from cardiovascular cause. The secondary outcome was all‐cause mortality. Results At baseline, 12% of the subjects had prevalent cardiovascular disease. Serum galectin‐3 was increased in the group with incident cardiovascular events compared with those who remained free of events during follow up (9.03 ± 2.98 ng/mL vs 8.15 ± 2.76, P < 0.01). Serum galectin‐3 was also significantly increased in those subjects with a fatal outcome. The hazard ratios (HR) for cardiovascular events and all‐cause mortality for individuals in the top quartile were 2.50 (95% CI 1.87, 3.36, P < 0.001) and 3.92 (95%CI 2.55, 6.01, P < 0.001), respectively. In a multivariate Cox regression analysis including traditional risk factors, log (eGFR), baseline albuminuria, and cardiovascular disease status, the HR per standard deviation change in galectin‐3 was 1.13 (95% CI 1.02, 1.26, P = 0.02) for cardiovascular events and 1.17 (95% CI 1.01, 1.35, P = 0.04) for all‐cause mortality. Conclusions Serum galectin‐3 is associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes in persons with type 2 diabetes independent of traditional risk factors.

Galectin-3 is Associated with Cardiovascular Events in Post-Acute Coronary Syndrome Patients with Type-2 Diabetes

“…Ozturk et al [33] showed that higher galectin-3 levels predicted coronary atherosclerosis in 158 T2DM patients studied using coronary computed tomography angiography. Also, increased galectin-3 levels have been associated with all-cause mortality in T2DM patients with low [34] and high [35] cardiovascular risk, even without prior CVD and independently of traditional risk factors.…”

Female sex, high soluble CD163, and low HDL-cholesterol were associated with high galectin-3 binding protein in type 1 diabetes

“…Galectin-3 has been associated with coronary artery disease (CAD) and CV death in high-risk patients referred for coronary angiography [12]. It has also been linked to adverse CV outcomes in type 2 diabetes (T2D) independent of traditional risk factors [13].…”

Clinical Value of Circulating Microribonucleic Acids miR-1 and miR-21 in Evaluating the Diagnosis of Acute Heart Failure in Asymptomatic Type 2 Diabetic Patients

“…Holmager et al [35] suggested that glucose metabolism is associated with circulating galactin-3 in HF, as elevated levels were found in patients with DM and a relation with increasing HbA1c levels was also demonstrated. Both ours and the mentioned previous study [31,32,34,35] suggest that there is an urgent need to develop galectin-3 inhibitors that have a high oral bioavailability and a low toxicity profile to combat increased galectin-3 levels which are related with the developing HF in DM.…”

“…It is interesting that as compared with the CAD + DM and HF + DM groups, galectin-3 levels in CAD + DM was found lower than HF + DM. Tan et al [31] investigated the relationship between serum galectin-3 and incident cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality in T2DM patients. According to the results of this study, serum galectin-3 was found to be related to the adverse outcomes in subjects with or without prevalent CAD, independent from the traditional cardiovascular risk factors.…”