Associations of Serum and Urinary Magnesium with the Pre-Diabetes, Diabetes and Diabetic Complications in the Chinese Northeast Population

Jiancheng Xu,Weixia Sun,Hanxin Yao,Lu Cai,Wei Xu,Qi Zhou,Xianglin Shi

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056750

Jiancheng Xu, Weixia Sun + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056750

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Abstract

The effect of magnesium (Mg) deficiency on the prevalence of diabetes and diabetic complications has received a great attention. The present study investigated the association of Mg level in the serum or urine of the patients, lived in the Northeast areas of China, with either pre-diabetes or diabetes with and without complications. From January 2010 to October 2011, patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D, n = 25), type 2 diabetes (T2D, n = 137), impaired fasting glucose (IFG, n = 12) or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT, n = 15), and age/gender matched control (n = 50) were enrolled in the First Hospital of Jilin University. In T2D group, there were 24, 34, and 50 patients with nephropathy, retinopathy or peripheral neuropathy. Serum Mg levels in the patients with IGT, IFG, T2D, and T1D were significantly lower than that of control. The urinary Mg levels were significantly increased only in T2D and T1D patients compared to control. There was no difference for these two changes among T2D with and without complications; In addition, there was a significantly positive correlation of serum Mg levels with serum Ca levels only in T2D patients, and also a significantly positive correlation of urinary Mg levels with urinary Ca levels in control, IGT patients, and T2D patients. Simvastatin treatment in T2D patients selectively reduced serum Ca levels and urinary Mg levels. These results suggest that the potential impact of Mg deficiency on metabolic syndrome, diabetes and diabetic complications needs to be received special attention.

Highlights

Diabetes is a growing public health burden across the world, in the developing countries [1,2,3]
By following-up for 6 years, for instance, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study group examined the risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D) in over 12,000 middle-aged adults without diabetes at baseline examination, but they did not find any statistical association between dietary Mg intake and incidence of T2D in either black or white research subjects [15]
Observations in Caucasian diabetics have linked hypomagnesaemia as being an additional risk factor for the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR), but this correlation was not observed in black African diabetics [14]

Summary

Introduction

Diabetes is a growing public health burden across the world, in the developing countries [1,2,3]. Diet is widely believed to play an important role in the development of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and the associated complications [3,4]. By following-up for 6 years, for instance, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study group examined the risk for T2D in over 12,000 middle-aged adults without diabetes at baseline examination, but they did not find any statistical association between dietary Mg intake and incidence of T2D in either black or white research subjects [15]. Inconsistent findings for the correlation of serum Mg with the risk of diabetes and diabetic complications is attributed to the difference in population [14,15], and attributed to difference in the measurements [16]

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