Systemic proinflammatory-profibrotic response in aortic stenosis patients with diabetes and its relationship with myocardial remodeling and clinical outcome

Background: Previous studies have mainly focused more on how diabetes affects the valve than the myocardium in aortic stenosis (AS). In the pressure-overloaded heart, myocardial fibrosis is an important driver of the progression from compensated hypertrophy to heart failure. Using comprehensive noninvasive imaging and plasma proteomics, we investigated whether and how diabetes aggravates the remodeling of the myocardium and its relation with prognosis in AS patients.

Methods: Severe AS patients were enrolled in two prospective cohorts for imaging and biomarker analysis. The imaging cohort (n = 253) underwent echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance, and the biomarker cohort (n = 100) blood sampling with multiplex proximity extension assay for 92 proteomic biomarkers. The composite outcome of hospitalization for heart failure admissions and death was assessed in the imaging cohort.

Results: Diabetic patients were older (70.4 ± 6.8 versus 66.7 ± 10.1 years) with more advanced ventricular diastolic dysfunction and increased replacement and diffuse interstitial fibrosis (late gadolinium enhancement % 0.3 [0.0-1.6] versus 0.0 [0.0-0.5], p = 0.009; extracellular volume fraction % 27.9 [25.7-30.1] versus 26.7 [24.9-28.5], p = 0.025) in the imaging cohort. Plasma proteomics analysis of the biomarker cohort revealed that 9 proteins (E-selectin, interleukin-1 receptor type 1, interleukin-1 receptor type 2, galectin-4, intercellular adhesion molecule 2, integrin beta-2, galectin-3, growth differentiation factor 15, and cathepsin D) were significantly elevated and that pathways related to inflammatory response and extracellular matrix components were enriched in diabetic AS patients. During follow-up (median 6.3 years), there were 53 unexpected heart failure admissions or death in the imaging cohort. Diabetes was a significant predictor of heart failure and death, independent of clinical covariates and aortic valve replacement (HR 1.88, 95% CI 1.06-3.31, p = 0.030).

Conclusions: Plasma proteomic analyses indicate that diabetes potentiates the systemic proinflammatory-profibrotic milieu in AS patients. These systemic biological changes underlie the increase of myocardial fibrosis, diastolic dysfunction, and worse clinical outcomes in severe AS patients with concomitant diabetes.