Gender Differences in Inflammatory Markers among Type 2 Diabetic Subjects

Abstract

In India currently around 40.9 million people are diabetic and is expected to rise to 69.9 million by 2025unless preventive steps are taken. The so called “Asian Indian Phenotype” refers to certain unique clinicaland biochemical abnormalities. Diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases act as two sides of the samecoin. According to Framingham study, diabetic women have an increased cardiovascular risk about 3.5 foldhigher than non diabetic women. In view of the impact of sexual hormones on glucose homeostasis, themolecular pathways involved in insulin resistance suggest a gender specificity mechanism in the developmentof diabetic complications and also seems to progress at a faster rate in females compared to males andwomen benefit less from treatment than do men. Hence a case controlled study was done to mark the genderdifferences in inflammatory markers among newly detected and known type 2 diabetic subjects. The studyincluded 33 women and 17 men in the NDM group and 30 women and 20 men in the DM5 group. Thebiomarkers namely homocysteine (µmol/l), C-reactive protein (mg/l), lipoprotein (a) (mg / dl) and vitaminB12 (pg/ml) were analyzed. It was observed that the Hcy and Lp(a) values were higher in males than thefemales but CRP and Vitamin B12 values were higher in women when compared to males. (24.54±12.59,3.81±1.14, 15.67±14.22 and 280.69±77.03 and among the women it was 17.06 ±5.54, 5.84 ±3.47, 10.55±12.89 and 352.35± 238.02 respectively). Among the DM5 all the values of the inflammatory markers werehigher in males than in females. (It was 24.59 ±5.13, 4.25 ±0.79, 32.70 ±14.54 and 343.43 ±178.39 and inwomen, 17.64 ±5.07, 3.68 ±0.51, 24.25 ± 9.40 and 338.40 ± 158.15 respectively) From these observations itcan be suggested that there are marked differences among the gender in the values of the inflammatorymarkers. It can also be suggested that the process of inflammation begins on the onset of diabetes which canprogress as the disease progresses. Thus periodic analysis is required to efficiently treat the inflammationprocess to avoid complications related to cardio vascular risk