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Circulating Galectin-3 Is Associated With Cardiometabolic Disease in the Community
Matthew Nayor1, Na Wang2, Martin G Larson3
1National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's and Boston University's Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA (M.N., M.G.L., R.S.V., D.L., J.E.H.) Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA (M.N.).
Insights
Higher Galectin-3 (Gal-3) levels correlate with obesity and hypertension but do not predict future cardiometabolic diseases. Further research is needed to understand Gal-3
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Medicine
- Endocrinology
- Metabolic Research
Background:
- Circulating Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is linked to heart failure, atrial fibrillation, chronic kidney disease, and mortality.
- Emerging evidence suggests Gal-3 influences cardiometabolic factors like adiposity, insulin resistance, and hyperglycemia.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between blood Gal-3 concentrations and cardiometabolic disease traits.
- To determine if Gal-3 predicts incident cardiometabolic diseases in a community-based cohort.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional and prospective analyses were conducted on 2946 participants from the Framingham Heart Study.
- Associations between Gal-3 levels and various cardiometabolic risk factors and disease incidence were examined.
Main Results:
- Higher Gal-3 concentrations were significantly associated with increased body mass index, waist circumference, triglycerides, obesity, and hypertension.
- Gal-3 showed associations with incident metabolic syndrome and diabetes in age- and sex-adjusted models, but these did not persist after multivariable adjustment.
Conclusions:
- Circulating Gal-3 is associated with abdominal adiposity, dyslipidemia, and hypertension cross-sectionally.
- Gal-3 did not predict incident cardiometabolic disease in multivariable-adjusted analyses.
- Further research should explore the mechanisms linking Gal-3 to cardiometabolic disease and its potential as a therapeutic target.
Background:
Circulating Galectin-3 (Gal-3) concentrations are associated with an increased incidence of heart failure, atrial fibrillation, chronic kidney disease, and mortality. Recent evidence suggests that Gal-3 may also be an important modulator of cardiometabolic traits such as adiposity, insulin resistance, and hyperglycemia. We examined the associations of blood Gal-3 concentrations and cardiometabolic disease traits in the Framingham Heart Study.
Methods And Results:
In cross-sectional analyses of 2946 Framingham Heart Study participants (mean age 59 years, 55% women), higher Gal-3 concentrations were associated with higher body mass index, waist circumference, and triglycerides (P<0.0001 for all). Higher Gal-3 was associated with greater odds of obesity (multivariable-adjusted odds ratio 1.16 per 1-SD increase in log-Gal-3, 95% CI 1.06-1.28, P=0.002) and hypertension (odds ratio 1.18, 95% CI 1.07-1.29, P=0.0006). In prospective analyses, Gal-3 was associated with incident metabolic syndrome (hazard ratio 1.22, 95% CI 1.10-1.36, P=0.0002) and diabetes (hazard ratio 1.21, 95% CI 1.04-1.41, P=0.02), in age- and sex-adjusted, but not multivariable-adjusted models.
Conclusions:
In this large, community-based sample, circulating Gal-3 was associated with abdominal adiposity, dyslipidemia, and hypertension in cross-sectional analyses, but Gal-3 did not predict incident cardiometabolic disease after adjusting for cardiometabolic risk factors. Future investigations should focus on further elucidating mechanisms linking Gal-3 with cardiometabolic disease and on assessing whether modulation of the Gal-3 pathway might have positive cardiometabolic effects.
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