Diabetic patients have a greater risk of developing vascular disease (myocardial infarction, stroke, and peripheral cardiovascular disease). Risk factors for cardiovascular disease associated with diabetes include malfunctioned metabolic control and lipid abnormalities. Furthermore, loss of endothelial thrombomodulin expression and lower blood levels of activated protein C (aPC) have been repeatedly demonstrated in atherosclerosis and diabetes mellitus. Recently inflammsome-associated sterile inflammation has been linked with vascular diseases as well. However, the relevance of these findings for vascular diseases in diabetes mellitus remains largely unknown. Our work focuses on understanding the role of coagulation regulator and sterile inflammation in myocardial infarction and atherosclerosis so that these complications can be treated or prevented.
Our work is, or has been, funded by the German Research Council (DFG), Research Training Groups (RTG), Foundation for Pathobiochemistry and Molecular Diagnostics (SPMD), and University of Leipzig.