Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Many researchers are linking diabetes with obesity, which has become very prevalent now, but we see large numbers of diabetics with normal weight as we see obese persons, but they are not necessarily diabetics, which calls us seriously to review this matter, taking into account that obesity is a factor in the occurrence of diabetes. Many studies have talked about visceral fat, as well as about the ratio between visceral fat and subcutaneous fat and its role in the occurrence of insulin resistance and diabetes. Here, we consider that the increase in the percentage of visceral fat, that is, the fat that is not in its right place, is an important indicator of the occurrence of this major defect in the metabolism process, which represents severe stress on the genes responsible for the metabolism process and represents severe stress on the beta cells in the pancreas.

Materials and methods: 600 patients followed in a private clinic in observational prospective study. Patients have been categorized into 6 groups according to being diabetic, prediabetic, control, with normal body mass index or high body mass index.

Results: The results exhibit a statistically notable difference between overweight diabetic patients and overweight control as regards increased visceral fat to subcutaneous fat ratio with P value less than 0.0001. The results exhibit a statistically notable difference between overweight prediabetic patients and overweight control as regards increased visceral fat to subcutaneous fat ratio with P value less than 0.0001. The results exhibit a statistically notable difference between normal weight diabetic patients and normal weight control as regards increased visceral fat to subcutaneous fat ratio with P value less than 0.0001. The results exhibit a statistically notable difference between normal weight prediabetic patients and normal weight control as regards increased visceral fat to subcutaneous fat ratio with P value less than 0.0001. Most patients with diabetes and prediabetic have visceral to subcutaneous fat ratio more than 0.6 which can be considered as a cutoff point to type 2 diabetes mellitus diagnosis.

Conclusion: As type 2 diabetes grows in an epidemic way, it is a must to know the pathogenesis and find new treatment pathways. Epigenetics explain most of type 2 diabetes cases by increasing visceral to subcutaneous fat ratio.

Keywords: type 2 diabetes, visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, and epigenetics.