Grant: CIHR-ICRH Travel Awards - General pool

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease typically diagnosed in childhood that has no cure. This chronic condition causes cells from the immune system to attack the pancreatic beta cells, destroying the body’s ability to produce insulin. Despite insulin replacement therapies, adults with T1D experience cardiovascular events more frequently and at an earlier age. We and others have reported that children diagnosed with T1D display cardiovascular risk factors like blood pressure abnormalities and indicators of vascular damage such as arterial stiffness. Therefore, we speculate that from diagnosis, T1D has begun to damage the vasculature, whereas early pharmacotherapy interventions with endothelial function enhancing drugs like angiotensin II receptor blockers may prevent long-term cardiovascular complications. Our research focuses on using a mouse model of T1D to characterize vascular damage from diabetes onset and exploring the use of early pharmacological interventions to prevent/reverse arterial stiffness and other long-term cardiovascular complications.