Elevated white blood cell count is associated with higher risk of glucose metabolism disorders in middle-aged and elderly Chinese people.

An-Ping Wang,Jing-Tao Dou,Hua Jiang,Chan-Juan Li,Wen-Hua Yan,Yi-Ming Mu

doi:10.3390/ijerph110505497

Abstract

White blood cell (WBC) count has been associated with diabetic risk, but whether the correlation is independent of other risk factors has hardly been studied. Moreover, very few such studies with large sample sizes have been conducted in Chinese. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between WBC count and glucose metabolism in china. We also examined the relevant variables of WBC count. A total of 9,697 subjects (mean age, 58.0 ± 9.1 years) were recruited. The subjects were classified into four groups, including subjects with normal glucose tolerance, isolated impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We found that WBC count increased as glucose metabolism disorders exacerbated. WBC count was also positively correlated with waist hip ratio, body mass index, smoking, triglycerides, glycosylated haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and 2-h postprandial glucose. In addition, high density lipoprotein and the female gender were inversely correlated with WBC levels. In patients with previously diagnosed T2DM, the course of T2DM was not correlated with WBC count. Our findings indicate that elevated WBC count is independently associated with worsening of glucose metabolism in middle-aged and elderly Chinese. In addition, loss of weight, smoking cessation, lipid-modifying therapies, and control of postprandial plasma glucose and HbA1c may ameliorate the chronic low-grade inflammation.

Highlights

Chronic low-grade inflammation has been shown as a key component in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) [1]
Comparing subjects of different glycemic status, we found that age, gender, history of hypertension, family history of diabetes, history of coronary heart disease, history of dyslipidemia, smoking, alcohol, waist hip ratio (WHR), body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), white blood cell (WBC) count, total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL, HDL, haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), FBG and 2-h postprandial plasma glucose (2-h PG) were significantly different among the groups (Table 1)
We found that: (1) Age, history of hypertension, family history of diabetes, BMI and elevated WBC count were independent associated with impaired fasting glucose (iIFG). (2) Age, history of hypertension, family history of diabetes, BMI, WHR and elevated WBC count were independent associated with of IGT. (3)

Summary

Introduction

Chronic low-grade inflammation has been shown as a key component in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) [1]. Inflammation on its own can impair insulin signaling [2], and promote β-cell death [3]. Evidence from epidemiological studies suggests an association between the white blood cell (WBC) count, a non-specific marker of inflammation, and diabetes risk [4]. It is unknown whether the correlation is independent of other risk factors of T2DM. This correlation remains controversial among different populations [5,6,7,8].

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion