Cardiac Lipid Content and Systolic Function in Overweight Type 2 Diabetic Subjects After Exercise Training

Vera Schrauwen-Hinderling¹, Ruth Meex¹, Jan Glatz¹, Joachim Wildberger¹, Hildo Lamb², Michael Schr^3,4, Matthijs Hesselink¹, Patrick Schrauwen¹, Marianne Eline Kooi¹

Excessive cardiac lipid storage might hamper cardiac function via lipotoxic pathways. We investigated the response of cardiac lipids to exercise training in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Maximal whole body oxygen uptake and LV-ejection fraction (by CINE-MRI) were improved while cardiac lipid content (by 1H-MRS) was unchanged after training. This is in contrast to our earlier findings in healthy overweight subjects, where such a training intervention diminished cardiac lipid content. This may indicate hampered exercise-induced lipid mobilization in the diabetic heart and reveals that reduction of cardiac lipids is not a prerequisite for the training-induced improvement in cardiac function.