Iron Profile and Glycaemic Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Association between iron profile status and insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Introduction

Individuals' burden of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, is increasing. This indicates to intrigue into various facets of prevention, early screening, prognostication and feasible treatment alternatives in this arena.

Aim

This study targets to evaluate iron profile status among people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus and normoglycemic in order to deduce association between iron parameters and insulin resistance, if any exist.

Methodology

A case-control study of total 123 subjects, comprising males and females in the age group of 30 - 70 years were recruited for the study. Case group constituted 81 participants who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus and control group constituted 42 healthy individuals who attended routine health check-ups in the hospital. Iron profile parameters including Serum Iron, Serum Ferritin, Total Iron binding Capacity and Glycemic profile parameter like fasting blood glucose, serum insulin were estimated. Transferrin saturation and HOMA-IR were calculated.

Result

Ferritin and Transferrin saturation was found to be higher in cases than in controls with significance of p = 0.003 and p = 0.021 respectively and TIBC (total iron-binding capacity) was lesser in cases with p = 0.031. Comparison of Serum Iron values did not yield a significant result. Correlation study between ferritin and insulin resistance parameters yielded a satisfactory result in the cases (p<0.05) and controls (p<0.01) separately.

Conclusion

This study implies that there is a clear link between iron profile status, notably ferritin, and the emergence of insulin resistance, and hence insulin production. This study supports the function of the micronutrient iron in the etiology of type 2 diabetes and its consequences.

Dental iron precipitates in patients with Type 2 diabetes

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a frequent worldwide disease. There are currently more than 46 million people who suffer this disease in North America and the Caribbean. The objective of this study was to determine if there is an association between DM and the presence of iron precipitates (Fe2+) in dental structure. The third molar was extracted for reasons that merit extraction from 40 individuals with and without DM to analyze dentin tissue. Horizontal and longitudinal slices of tooth samples were made and later stained with 10% potassium cyanoferrate. The samples were observed by optical microscope to identify basophilic elements. A nonparametric Spearman correlation was performed to find an association between the quantitative (gender, group, and dentinal tissue) and qualitative variables (gender). The Mann-Whitney U test was used to find differences in the means of the nonparametric variables in two different groups in relation to the P value (<0.05). Iron elements were found in the predentin and circumpulpal dentin areas, and the results obtained showed a statistically significant difference between dentin tissue from patients with diabetes and those without. Individuals with Type 2 DM are prone to present iron precipitates in predentin and circumpulpal dentin tissue. Few iron elements were found in dental organs of individuals without DM.