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Sobenin et al. Vessel Plus 2017;1:174-81 Vessel Plus
DOI: 10.20517/2574-1209.2017.19
www.vpjournal.net
Topic: Atherosclerosis and Related Diseases Open Access

Is insulin pro-atherogenic at the cellular

level?

Igor A. Sobenin , Varvara A. Orekhova , Andrey V. Grechko , Alexander N. Orekhov 2,4
3
1
1,2
1 Department of Cardiovascular Pathology, National Medical Research Center of Cardiology, 121552 Moscow, Russia.
2 Laboratory of Angiopathology, Institute of General Pathology and Pathophysiology, 125315 Moscow, Russia.
3 Federal Scientific Clinical Center for Resuscitation and Rehabilitation, 109240 Moscow, Russia.
4 Institute for Atherosclerosis Research, Skolkovo Innovative Center, 121609 Moscow, Russia.
Correspondence to: Dr. Igor A. Sobenin, Department of Cardiovascular Pathology, National Medical Research Center of Cardiology, 15-a, 3-rd
Cherepkovskaya Str, 121552 Moscow, Russia. E-mail: igor.sobenin@gmail.com
How to cite this article: Sobenin IA, Orekhova VA, Grechko AV, Orekhov AN. Is insulin pro-atherogenic at the cellular level? Vessel Plus 2017;1:174-
81.

Dr. Igor A. Sobenin is a Leading Researcher at the Department of Cardiovascular Pathology at National Medical
Research Center of Cardiology, Moscow, Russia. He has received his MD in Internal Diseases in 1988, PhD in
Endocrinology in 1991, and DSc in Pathophysiology and Biochemistry in 2006. His research activity is related to
molecular, biochemical and cellular mechanisms of atherosclerosis, including genetic and phenotypic markers
of susceptibility, clinical, epidemiological and population studies in the field of chronic diseases with a special
emphasis on atherosclerosis. He has published more than 150 papers in international peer-reviewed journals
indexed by PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science.

ABSTRACT
Article history: Aim: This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that insulin treatment has unexpected
Received: 9 Jun 2017 pro-atherogenic effects at the cellular level, namely, proliferative activity and intracellular
Accepted: 13 Sep 2017 cholesterol content. Methods: Primary cultures of subendothelial cells derived from non-
Published: 28 Dec 2017 atherosclerotic human aorta and mouse peritoneal macrophages were used to investigate the in
vitro effect of insulin on atherosclerosis-related parameters, such as cellular cholesterol content
Key words: and proliferation rate. Additionally, the effect of insulin treatment in 33 type 1 diabetic patients
Diabetes mellitus, on serum atherogenicity (i.e. its ability to induce cholesterol accumulation in cultured cells)
atherosclerosis, was investigated. Results: Insulin (1-1,000 µU/mL) did not affect [ H]-thymidine incorporation
3
insulin, or cholesterol content in either type of cultured cell. Most blood sera obtained from type 1
cultured subendothelial cells,
cholesterol accumulation, diabetic patients induced a 1.5- to 1.7-fold increase in cholesterol content of cultured cells, but
cellular proliferation this effect did not correlate with serum insulin levels. Exogenous insulin added to cultured cells
did not modify the effect of patient’s sera on cholesterol level and proliferation of cultured cells.
Conclusion: The results suggest that insulin does not exert direct atherogenic actions at the
level of arterial cells, with the respect to proliferative activity and cholesterol content.

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