Cellular inflammation precursor to heart disease.

• Position: Endocrinology - Brief Article

Endocrinologists are providing one more link in the growing chain of evidence pointing to chronic cellular inflammation as the precursor of heart disease and diabetes. University at Buffalo (N.Y.) researchers have shown for the first time that circulating mononuclear cells--the body's monocytes (the largest type of white blood cell) and lymphocytes--exist in a proinflammatory state in obese persons known to be at increased risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, or both.

"These cells are creating a lot of nuisance in the obese," notes Paresh Dandona, head of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. "They enter the artery and set up atherosclerosis. They activate fat cells to produce more proinflammatory factors. They interfere with insulin signaling, causing insulin resistance. They even enter the brain."

The good news, Dandona indicates, is that, based on these findings, the status of mononuclear cells from one blood...