Fetuin-A and type II diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Background The pathophysiology of type II DM is complex; in addition to impaired insulin secretion from Beta-cells, reduced insulin sensitivity was found to play a predominant role in the pathogenesis of the disease. Fetuin-A is a he-patic secretory protein that binds the insulin receptor and inhibits insulin action both in vivo and in vitro. Objective Our aim was to investigate whether serum fetuin-A levels predict the incidence of insulin resistance in type II DM. Patient and methods The present study included 40 patients who had type II diabetes mellitus served as patients group and 40 apparently normal individuals served as control group. All patient and control groups were subjected to the following: full medical history and thorough physical examination, fasting & post prandial blood glucose, urea, creatinine, lipid profile, CRP, insulin and fetuin-A. Results There was highly significant increase in serum insulin, serum fetuin A and HOMA-IR in diabetic group compared with control group. There was significant positive correlation between serum fetuin A and serum insulin, FBG, HbA1c and serum CRP. Also a significant positive correlation between HOMA-IR and serum fetuin A, serum insulin and HbA1c were found. Conclusion We concluded that fetuin-A may play a role in the pathogenesis of type II DM, and high serum fetuin-A has a strong association with IR and glycemic control in type II diabetic patients. Future studies are recommended to establish the possibility of using fetuin-A as a predictor of insulin resistance in type II diabetic patients.

Keywords

• C-reactive protein, diabetes mellitus, fetuin-A, insulin resistance