Relationship of serum level of sex hormone-binding globulin with development of macrovascular complications in type 2 diabetic patients

Abstract

Objective To investigate the relationship between serum sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and macrovascular complications in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods A total of 80 T2DM patients (male 48, female 32, average age (61±8) y) who were admitted to our hospital during January 2010 and December 2011 were assigned to the macrovascular complication group (group C, n=40, male 25, female 15, average age (63±11) y) and non-macrovascular complication group (group B, n=40, male 23, female 17, average age (60±11) y). Another 40 healthy controls were recruited from health check-up populations (group A, male 25, female 15, average age (58±10) y). Serum SHBG, body mass index (BMI), waist/hip ratio (WHR), fasting and postprandial plasma glucose, serum insulin, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), lipids, blood pressure, urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR), and insulin resistance were measured. Student's t test or Analysis of variance was used for data analysis. Results Serum level of SHBG in group C ((31±6) μg/L) was significantly lower than that in group B ((46±17) μg/L) and group A ((56±14) μg/L) (F=9.763, P<0.01). In Spearman correlation analysis, serum SHBG was negatively correlated with WHR, triglyceride (TG), fasting and postprandial serum insulin, insulin resistance index (IRI) and ACR (r values were -0.216, -0.156, -0.144, -0.108, -0.263 and -0.126, respectively; all P<0.05). Multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that TG, WHR and IRI were independent variables of serum SHBG (r2 values were -1.132, -0.862 and -2.650, respectively; all P<0.05). Conclusions Serum SHBG seems to play an important role in the development of type 2 diabetic macrovascular complications. Key words: Diabetes mellitus, type 2; Sex hormone-binding globulin; Macrovascular diseases