Angiotensin 1-7, a hormone in the body that has cardiovascular benefits, improves the metabolic syndrome in rats, according to a new study. The results were presented at The Endocrine Society's 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
"No specific form of medical therapy for the metabolic syndrome presently exists," said the study's lead author, Yonit Marcus, MD, a PhD student at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. "But an estimated 20 to 25 percent of the world's adult population has the metabolic syndrome."
The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors that raise the risk of developing heart disease, stroke and diabetes. A diagnosis of the metabolic syndrome comes from having at least three of the following: increased waist circumference (abdominal obesity), low HDL ("good") cholesterol, high triglycerides (fats in the blood), high blood pressure and high blood glucose (blood sugar).
The renin-angiotensin system and its key player, the hormone angiotensin II, normally help control blood pressure, but when overactive, this hormone likely contributes to the development of obesity and the metabolic syndrome. A product of angiotensin II metabolism, a hormone called angiotensin 1-7, counteracts many of the negative effects of excess angiotensin II, including high blood pressure, kidney disease, heart failure and cardiac arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythms), according to Marcus.