Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in type 2 diabetes. Short-term studies of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)-targeted therapies suggest potential beneficial effects on cardiovascular outcomes. The mechanism behind this unexpectedly rapid effect is not known. In this study, full-length human GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) mRNA was cloned and sequenced from a human megakaryocyte cell line. Quantitative RT-PCR results showed that expression levels were comparable to other GLP-1R expressing tissues. Furthermore, incubation with GLP-1 and the GLP-1R agonist exenatide elicited a cAMP response in these cells. As megakaryocytes are the cellular precursors of platelets, the effect of GLP-1 and exenatide were studied in gel-filtered human platelet aggregation, where they were both shown to have an inhibitory effect on thrombin-stimulated platelet aggregation. Platelet inhibition by GLP-1 and GLP-1R agonists presents a potential mechanism for the reduced incidence of atherothrombotic events thought to be associated with GLP-1-targeted therapies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/42699 |
| Date | 21 November 2013 |
| Creators | Cameron-Vendrig, Alison |
| Contributors | Husain, Mansoor, Ni, Heyu |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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