Endocrine Abstracts

Background: The worldwide type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) prevalence is increasing dramatically. Inflammation is involved in the pathogenesis of T2DM and development of insulin resistance. Lack of diabetic control is associated with alteration in the endocrine milieu and various health sequalae’s. The aim of this research was to assess if uncontrolled T2DM is associated with increased serum levels of inflammatory cytokines and growth factors when compared with controlled T2DM in diabetic patients in Jordan.

Methods: A single institution, cross sectional study design was used in this research. One hundred and ten patients with controlled DM (HbA< ce:inf>1c<ce:inf> <7.0%), and 105 age-, gender- and body mass index–matched patient with uncontrolled (HbA< ce:inf>1c<ce:inf> ≥7.0%) DM were recruited from the internal medicine clinic in King Abdullah University Hospital in Jordan. An antibody membrane array was used to evaluate the difference in serum levels of inflammatory cytokines, followed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to confirm the results.

Results: fasting blood glucose, serum insulin, triglyceride and HOMA-IR were significantly higher in the uncontrolled T2DM group (P < 0.01). Antibody membrane array showed that epidermal growth factor (EGF) is lower in the uncontrolled T2DM, and this was confirmed by ELISA (158.77 + 111.7 vs 95.9 + 82.7 pg/ml, P = 0.002. The binary logistic model was used to predict the likelihood of being uncontrolled diabetic based on EGF levels. After controlling for age, gender, and BMI, EGF was statistically associated with diabetes control; lower EGF levels predicted uncontrolled diabetes.

Conclusion: Our data identify a novel link between serum EGF levels and the status of glycated hemoglobin indicative of diabetic control.