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Investigation of association of biomarkers of iron metabolism and insulin resistance in Egyptian patients with impaired glucose metabolism and type 2 diabetes

The Egyptian Journal of Internal Medicine volume 31, pages 874–883 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Introduction

Type 2 diabetes is an expanding overall medical issue. A large portion of the enthusiasm for the job of supplements in diabetes is fixated on macronutrients, yet a micronutrient, iron, is additionally closely connected with diabetes.

Aim

To study biomarkers of iron metabolism, including serum ferritin, transferrin saturation, iron, and insulin resistance, in diabetic and prediabetes patients.

Patients and methods

This is a cross-sectional study directed on a cohort of 50 patients, comprising 25 patients with impaired glucose tolerance and 25 patients recently discovered to have type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), as well as 20 healthy controls of matched age and both sexes. All patients enrolled in the study were subjected to full history taking, full examination, laboratory investigations including iron, total iron-binding capacity, ferritin, insulin, lipid profile, fasting blood glucose, 2-h postprandial glucose, urea, creatinine, complete blood count, alanine aminotransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase.

Results

We found that patients with T2DM have significant higher body weight and BMI than prediabetes patients and controls, and also statistically significant difference in serum iron between the studied groups, but no statistical significance in serum ferritin between the studied groups. In addition, we found a positive correlation of serum iron and insulin resistance in T2DM, a significant positive correlation of serum ferritin with low-density lipoprotein and negative correlation with high-density lipoprotein in T2DM, positive correlation of ferritin with cholesterol and triglycerides in impaired glucose tolerance group. Moreover, transferrin saturation was negatively correlated with glycated hemoglobin, BMI, and total iron-binding capacity and is positively correlated with iron and creatinine and hemoglobin among the studied groups.

Conclusion

The distinguished relationship of several markers of iron metabolism with hyperglycemia and insulin resistance recommends that iron stores add to the pathogenesis of IGM and T2DM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Mohandseen, Giza, 66 Gamaet Eldwal, 12511, Egypt

    Ibrahim N. ElEbrashy, Sarah I. Abdelgalil & Elham M. Yousief MD

  2. Department of Medical Biochemistry& Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

    Olfat Shaker

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  1. Ibrahim N. ElEbrashy
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  2. Olfat Shaker
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  3. Sarah I. Abdelgalil
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  4. Elham M. Yousief MD
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Correspondence to Elham M. Yousief MD.

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ElEbrashy, I.N., Shaker, O., Abdelgalil, S.I. et al. Investigation of association of biomarkers of iron metabolism and insulin resistance in Egyptian patients with impaired glucose metabolism and type 2 diabetes. Egypt J Intern Med 31, 874–883 (2019). https://doi.org/10.4103/ejim.ejim_100_19

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