Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Many reports have established a correlation between obesity and diabetes plus cardiovascular complications with the amount of a hormone in the body called adiponectin. Interestingly, the amount of adiponectin circulating in the blood decreases in obese and diabetic individuals. The precise reasons why changes in adiponectin cause diabetes and its complications remain to be determined. This project will focus on the role played by adiponectin - which is known to be released from fat cells and can travel in the bloodstream to have effects in many parts of the body. One such example is to mediate protective effects on the heart during injury. We intend to determine how too much or too little adiponectin influences the development of cardiovascular complications. Understanding the effects of adiponectin and how it works may facilitate development of new drug treatments, leading to improved health for Canadians.