Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

The major complication of chronic unmanaged diabetes is multiple organs damage, clinically termed as 'end organs damage'. Diabetes may result in hypertension and cardiovascular disease, diabetic nephropathy and renal failure, retinopathy and blindness, and peripheral vascular diseases sometimes leading to limb amputations. It is traditionally believed that insulin is a vasodilator, and the compromised effects of insulin on the blood vessels of these organs may lead to the end organs damage. Recently it is reported that, the vasodilation is not caused by insulin itself, but that a hepatic hormone released by insulin stimulation contributes to the dilatation of the vascular bed. The vasodilation caused by this hepatic hormone is found to increase the insulin-mediated glucose uptake in the skeletal muscles. The insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes is also caused because of the insufficient release of this novel hepatic factor. Life style changes, including physical exercise, reduce diabetic and vascular complications. The beneficial effects of physical activity may be due to the exercise induced improvement in vascular sensitivity to the insulin-stimulated hepatic hormonal factor. The exercise effect on vascular sensitivity to this hepatic hormone is not evaluated yet. This research work will allow assessment of exercise as a mean of increasing both the metabolic and vascular responses in a diabetic rat model.