Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2011) 25 P119

1Immune Signalling Laboratory, Institute of Immunology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland; 2Midlands Regional Hospital, Mullingar and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland.


Inflammation is a component of obesity-associated insulin resistance. Significant increases in inflammatory mediators such as IL6, TNFa and IL1b have been detected in the serum of diabetic patients. Herein, we investigated whether pre-diabetic patients also exhibited perturbations in circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines. To this end, we recruited 42 healthy non diabetics and subjected them to 75 g OGTT after an overnight fast. We profiled the cytokines that are present in the serum of non diabetics (n=33, BMI 27.3±3.6, HbA1c 5.5±0.2%) and compare to pre-diabetic patients (n=9, BMI 33.2±8.5, HbA1c 6.0±0.3%) by multiplex cytokine profiling.

Our data clearly show for the first time that levels of serum interferon-β (IFN-b) are significantly increased in pre-diabetic patients. In contrast, comparable levels of IL6, TNFa and IL1b are evident in the serum of pre-diabetic patients. Together, these data demonstrate that pre-diabetic patients exhibit perturbations in cytokine levels compared to normal individuals and support a role for these molecules in the disease progression to a diabetic pathology. Supported by HRB and SFI Ireland.

Table 1 Cytokine profiling of pre-diabetic patients.
Cytokine (pg/ml)Normal (mean±S.D.)Pre-diabetic (mean±S.D.)
IL61.14±0.591.59±0.59
TNFa14.28±1.2416.80±1.86
IL1b0.84±0.410.91±0.69
IFNb1.29±1.25.54±2.09

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