Abstract

BACKGROUND
Previous studies have reported that type 2 diabetes is associated with the increased blood concentrations of markers for the acute phase response, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), serum sialic acid and fibrinogen. The purpose of this study was to verify whether the pro-inflammatory cytokine- induced acute-phase response is a major pathogenic mechanism for type 2 diabetes in elderly Korean women. METHODS: We randomly selected a total of 232 non-smoking and non-diabetic female subjects among a total of 1,737 elderly subjects aged over 60 years who had participated in a population based study in Seoul, Korea (SWS Study 1999). We compared concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), as well as the acute-phase reactant C-reactive protein (CRP), between the subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and the subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). RESULTS: The IGT group showed higher serum high-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) concentrations than did the NGT group (the median was 1.2 versus 0.9, respectively, p<0.05). Moreover, a close relationship between serum hs-CRP concentrations and many components of the metabolic syndrome was found. However, serum concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines, IL-6 and TNF-alpha were not increasedin the IGT group, and they were not closely correlated with the components of metabolic syndrome. Multiple regression analysis using a stepwise selection method showed that the white blood cell counts, body mass index (BMI), fasting insulin, post-load 2h glucose, hematocrit and LDL cholesterol were associated with hs-CRP. CONCLUSIONS: The present study confirms the relationship between C-reactive protein, impaired glucose tolerance and metabolic syndrome in elderly Korean women.

• Keywords: Type 2 diabetes;Impaired glucose tolerance;C-reactive protein;Acute phase protein;Metabolic syndrome