IRCM Researchers

Every 3 minutes a new case of diabetes is diagnosed in Canada, mostly type 2 (T2D) increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) by 2 – 4 times. T2D and CVD share many risk factors such as aging, obesity and unhealthy lifestyle.  Paradoxically however, while lowering plasma LDL, also known as “bad cholesterol”, is cardioprotective, recent epidemiological evidence shows that the lower is plasma LDL, the higher is the risk for T2D. This finding is true whether lower plasma LDL is drug-induced or hereditary. Mechanisms underlying this paradox and approaches to reduce the risk for T2D without increasing that of CVD remain unclear.

Based on our expertise over the past decade, we propose that receptor-mediated uptake of LDL into insulin-sensitive tissue, such as white adipose tissue, promotes tissue dysfunction. White adipose tissue dysfunction provokes an array of abnormalities leading to T2D especially in subjects with obesity such as chronic inflammation and anomalies in glucose and fat metabolism. We also believe that omega-3 fatty acids (omega-3) can ameliorate defects induced by tissue uptake of LDL. Omega-3 is a healthy type of fat found mostly in fish oil that has multiple cardioprotective effects. 

Using a unique combination of clinical and fundamental testing, our lab started a clinical trial in 2019 exploring these hypotheses in subjects with overweight or obesity and with normal blood LDL cholesterol before and after 6-month on omega-3 supplementation. This 5-years trial is supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. All Canadians who fit the study inclusion criteria are welcome to join us at IRCM. We hope that together we will halt the rise in the incidence of T2D in Canada, the epidemic of the 21st century worldwide.