Why does diabetes increase "fatty plaque"?

Why does diabetes increase "fatty plaque"?

Anne Peters, MD, FACP, CDE (Professor and Director of Clinical Diabetes Programs, USC Keck School of Medicine) gives expert video advice on: Does taking additional insulin correct a high blood sugar level?; Why is my blood pressure important if I have diabetes?; What are the most common causes of death for people with diabetes? and more...

Diabetes causes a two- to-fourfold increase in the risk of heart disease and stroke. And the reason it does this probably has many different causes. One is because diabetes can cause high blood pressure. But also, inside the artery there's all of these sort of cells and markers and cholesterol. Blood sugar is sort of like taking a smooth surface, say, Teflon, and making it like Velcro. And so blood sugar takes the lining of the arteries and makes them stickier, and it also makes the little particles, the inflammatory cells, the cholesterol, stickier. So when you have diabetes, that sugar level in your blood makes all of the particles that lead to clogging of the arteries just stick more. And that increased stickiness is why people with diabetes have higher rates of heart disease. It's even more complicated than that, though, because people with Type 2 diabetes have other abnormalities. Their liver makes embolic cholesterol particles, their blood pressure's higher, there are a lot of other problems in Type 2 that makes them an even higher risk. But sugar itself I think is taking the lining of the arteries from Teflon to Velcro so stuff sticks to it, and the stuff that sticks to it causes the plaque that leads to heart attack and stroke.