Correlation of serum resistin level with insulin resistance and severity of retinopathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Resistin is an adipocyte secreted hormone, to investigate the relationship between levels of serum resistin and C-reactive protein (as an inflammatory marker) together with insulin resistance and the presence of retinopathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus in Egyptian subjects, we measured fasting serum resistin and CRP levels in thirty obese diabetic subjects (with different grades of retinopathy: ten diabetic patients without retinopathy, ten diabetic patients with non-proliferative retinopathy and ten diabetic patients with proliferative retinopathy) and compared them with the results of ten obese non diabetic subjects and ten non obese healthy volunteers. Insulin resistance was assessed using the homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). All subjects were investigated to analyze the change in their total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, and triglycerides levels. Fasting glucose and insulin resistance were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in diabetic compared with non diabetic subjects. Fasting Serum resistin and CRP were highly significantly different among the groups of study (P < 0.001). Fasting serum resistin concentration showed highly significant positive correlation with CRP, BMI (body mass index), serum insulin, HOMA-I.R, and FBS (fasting blood sugar) and it was significantly positively correlated with waist, hip circumferences and triglycerides levels, while it was significantly negatively correlated with HDL-C. Serum resistin was associated with the presence of retinopathy in T2DM. (C) 2012 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.