Phosphatidylserine supplementation as a potential strategy to improve endothelial function in type 2 diabetes

Endothelial dysfunction represents a causal factor in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D), including hypertension. Previous work has revealed that endothelial mechanosensing structures are degraded in T2D, resulting in impaired shear stress mechanotransduction and decreased flow-mediated dilation (FMD). One well-known mechanosensor that is susceptible to cleavage is glypican-1, a prominent proteoglycan member of the endothelial glycocalyx. In this regard, recent evidence from a proteomic analysis suggests that glypican-1 is a substrate of the proinflammatory enzyme ADAM17 (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase-17), which is elevated in the vasculature of T2D. Recent work has revealed that exogenous phosphatidylserine (PS) inhibits in vitro ADAM17 sheddase activity, which may aid in retaining the membrane-bound glypican-1. Therefore, we hypothesized that oral administration of PS in diabetic mice (db/db) would enhance shear stress mechanotransduction, as assessed by FMD, and that this would be accompanied by greater presence of glypican-1 on the endothelial surface. We further hypothesized that PS would reduce blood pressure. We tested this hypothesis in ~10-week-old db/db male mice that were randomized to receive a daily peanut butter pellet as vehicle control or the pellet mixed with soy-derived PS (200 mg/kg/day) for 28 days. A third group of untreated age-matched wild-type C57BL/6J male mice served as healthy controls. Excised mesenteric arteries were used for assessment of FMD using pressure myography, while femoral arteries were used for determining presence of glypican-1 content on the endothelial surface using confocal microscopy. Blood pressure was assessed using the tail-cuff method. All reported differences are significant at p<0.05. Compared with wild-types, untreated db/db mice had impaired FMD, reduced presence of endothelial glypican-1, and increased blood pressure. Notably, these effects were not observed in db/db mice treated with PS. These findings suggest that oral PS may be effective at improving indices of endothelial dysfunction in T2D, an effect likely mediated by the retention of endothelial mechanosensor glypican-1 via reduced ADAM17 sheddase activity. No support to disclose. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.