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Glucocorticoids Trigger Diabetes And Hypertension

Steroids called glucocorticoids are critical for treating diseases such as asthma, arthritis and pain syndromes, but they also can trigger diabetes and hypertension. In order to show why these drug exhibit such adverse reactions, a team from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis conducted a study.

In the study, the researchers found out that a protein called peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha (PPAR-alpha) is activated by fatty acids and appears to be important in the development of these problems. This helps explain the high incidence of diabetes and hypertension in obese individuals who have more glucocorticoids than average weight individuals.

From Bio-Medicine:

The team found that when given the glucocorticoid dexamethasone, mice lacking only LDLR had increased levels of insulin, fasting glucose and leptin, all signs of diabetes. The animals also became less hypoglycemic when given insulin, suggesting that they were developing insulin resistance, the precursor to diabetes.

“Somehow, animals missing PPAR-alpha were protected from developing diabetes and hypertension,” Semenkovich says.

The team also examined human liver cells in a petri dish. When PPAR-alpha was activated and steroids were added, expression of genes related to glucose production tripled.

“These results strongly suggest that the liver is the key to controlling blood pressure and glucose, and our preliminary evidence with human liver cells strongly suggests that the results in mice are relevant to human disease.”

Hopefully, studying this process in humans will lead to ways of preventing these potentially adverse effects of steroids and help us understand why people who get overweight have many of the symptoms of excess production of glucocorticoids.”

The researchers believed that hypertension and diabetes happen to overweight people who also produce significantly higher glucocorticoids. So, if the person has excess glucocorticoids or if he is using this medication, he has greater risk of developing hypertension and diabetes.

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