Grant: Project Grant

South Asian adults are more prone to type 2 diabetes and heart disease compared to people of other ethnicities. Given that South Asian people represent the largest visible minority in Canada, their overall health can have a significant impact on our health care system. We believe that this elevated risk of heart disease is partially due to South Asian people having less stem cells circulating in the blood that specialize in the repair of injured blood vessels. In addition, we predict circulating stem cells from South Asian people will show poor vessel repair function making the cells incapable of fixing blood vessels damaged by diabetes. We have designed a quick and accurate method to identify and count several different stem cell types involved in blood vessel repair from a 10mL blood sample. In a recent publication we discovered that South Asian adults with diabetes have less circulating vessel-repairing stem cells compared to White European people with diabetes. We propose to perform a clinical trial that studies blood cells from South Asian and White European adults prior to the onset of diabetes. We will count the total number of these blood stem cells to find out if healthy South Asian people naturally have less of these "fixer" cells compared to white European adults. We will also determine if the stem cells from South Asian adults produce a lower amount of proteins that induce blood vessel regeneration and lead to abnormal blood vessel repair. Finally, we will attempt to improve vessel health in South Asian people with diabetes by performing a clinical trial that treats them with a new drug called empagliflozin that reduces blood sugar and has been shown to reduce heart attacks and strokes in a landmark trial of >6000 individuals with type 2 diabetes. Our proposal aligns with the CIHR goal to create new medical treatments that will improve the health care of Canadians from diverse ethnic backgrounds.