Adrenal SGLT1 or SGLT2 as predictors of atherosclerosis under chronic stress based on a computer algorithm

Jianyi Li; Lingbing Meng; Dishan Wu; Hongxuan Xu; Xing Hu; Gaifeng Hu; Yuhui Chen; Jiapei Xu; Tao Gong; Deping Liu

doi:10.7717/peerj.15647

Adrenal SGLT1 or SGLT2 as predictors of atherosclerosis under chronic stress based on a computer algorithm

PeerJ. 2023 Aug 30:11:e15647. doi: 10.7717/peerj.15647. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jianyi Li^#^{1

2}, Lingbing Meng^#^{1

2}, Dishan Wu^{1

2}, Hongxuan Xu¹, Xing Hu¹, Gaifeng Hu³, Yuhui Chen⁴, Jiapei Xu¹, Tao Gong⁴, Deping Liu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cardiology, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology, Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
² Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Neurology, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology, National Center of Gerontology, Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Chronic stress promotes the development of atherosclerosis, causing disruptions in the body's hormone levels and changes in the structural function of organs.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the pathological changes in the adrenal gland in a model of atherosclerosis under chronic stress and to verify the expression levels of Sodium-glucose cotransporter (SGLT) 1 and SGLT2 in the adrenal gland and their significance in the changes of adrenal gland.

Methods: The model mice were constructed by chronic unpredictable stress, high-fat diet, and Apoe-/- knockout, and they were tested behaviorally at 0, 4, 8 and 12 weeks. The state of the abdominal artery was examined by ultrasound, and the pathological changes of the aorta and adrenal glands were observed by histological methods, and the expression levels and distribution of SGLT1 and SGLT2 in the adrenal gland were observed and analyzed by immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry. The predictive value of SGLT1 and SGLT2 expression levels on intima-media thickness, internal diameter and adrenal abnormalities were verified by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, support vector machine (SVM) and back-propagation (BP) neural network.

Results: The results showed that chronic stress mice had elevated expression levels of SGLT1 and SGLT2. The model mice developed thickening intima-media and smaller internal diameter in the aorta, and edema, reticular fiber rupture, increased adrenal glycogen content in the adrenal glands. More importantly, analysis of ROC, SVM and BP showed that SGLT1 and SGLT2 expression levels in the adrenal glands could predict the above changes in the aorta and were also sensitive and specific predictors of adrenal abnormalities.

Conclusion: SGLT1 and SGLT2 could be potential biomarkers of adrenal injury in atherosclerosis under chronic stress.

Keywords: Adrenal gland; Atherosclerosis; Chronic stress; Predictors; SGLT1; SGLT2.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Algorithms
Animals
Atherosclerosis*
Carotid Intima-Media Thickness*
Computers
Mice
Sodium-Glucose Transporter 2

Substances

Sodium-Glucose Transporter 2

Grants and funding

The present study was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant no. 2020YFC2003000, 2020YFC2003001), the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (Grant no. 2018-I2M-1-002), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 31271097 and 51672030). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.