Semaglutide and Vascular regeneration
The SEMA-VR CardioLink-15 Trial

People living with type 2 diabetes and/or obesity are at higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Atherosclerotic plaques can result in poor blood flow and inflammation throughout the body, which in severe forms may lead to life-threatening complications such as myocardial infarction and stroke. Semaglutide has been shown to efficiently reduce blood glucose levels and body weight in people with obesity, as well as reduce the rates of heart attack and stroke in people with diabetes. However, researchers do not yet fully understand how semaglutide reduces these cardiovascular events. Researchers have identified a specific type of cell responsible for repairing blood vessels, known as ‘vascular regenerative (VR) cells’. It has been demonstrated that people with diabetes had reduced VR cells and this may therefore be the foundation of new strategies to manage cardiovascular diseases. The current study has two objectives. The first is to identify if semaglutide treatment results in an increased number of VR cells in individuals with diabetes or obesity. The second is to determine if semaglutide treatment also reduces the quantity of inflammatory cells and proteins circulating in the blood. Our study will therefore help researchers understand how semaglutide protects the cardiovascular health of patients.
The results of this study were presented at the European Society of Cardiology 2025 meeting and were simultaneously published in the Europeon Heart Journal