Association between iron profile status and insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Reeba Maryam Sam; Shilpa S Shetty; Suchetha Kumari N; Sharmila Kp; Prajna Bhandary

doi:10.1007/s40200-023-01268-4

Association between iron profile status and insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

J Diabetes Metab Disord. 2023 Aug 4;22(2):1453-1458. doi: 10.1007/s40200-023-01268-4. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Reeba Maryam Sam^#¹, Shilpa S Shetty^#², Suchetha Kumari N^#^{2

3}, Sharmila Kp², Prajna Bhandary²

Affiliations

¹ KS Hegde Medical Academy, Nitte (Deemed to be University), Mangalore, India.
² Central Research Laboratory, KS Hegde Medical Academy, Nitte (Deemed to be University), Mangalore, India.
³ Department of Biochemistry, KS Hegde Medical Academy, Nitte (Deemed to be University), Mangalore, India.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 37975116
PMCID: PMC10638270 (available on 2024-08-04)
DOI: 10.1007/s40200-023-01268-4

Abstract

Introduction: Individuals' burden of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, is increasing. This indicates to intrigue into various facets of prevention, early screening, prognostication and feasible treatment alternatives in this arena.

Aim: This study targets to evaluate iron profile status among people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus and normoglycemic in order to deduce association between iron parameters and insulin resistance, if any exist.

Methodology: A case-control study of total 123 subjects, comprising males and females in the age group of 30 - 70 years were recruited for the study. Case group constituted 81 participants who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus and control group constituted 42 healthy individuals who attended routine health check-ups in the hospital. Iron profile parameters including Serum Iron, Serum Ferritin, Total Iron binding Capacity and Glycemic profile parameter like fasting blood glucose, serum insulin were estimated. Transferrin saturation and HOMA-IR were calculated.

Result: Ferritin and Transferrin saturation was found to be higher in cases than in controls with significance of p = 0.003 and p = 0.021 respectively and TIBC (total iron-binding capacity) was lesser in cases with p = 0.031. Comparison of Serum Iron values did not yield a significant result. Correlation study between ferritin and insulin resistance parameters yielded a satisfactory result in the cases (p<0.05) and controls (p<0.01) separately.

Conclusion: This study implies that there is a clear link between iron profile status, notably ferritin, and the emergence of insulin resistance, and hence insulin production. This study supports the function of the micronutrient iron in the etiology of type 2 diabetes and its consequences.

Keywords: Diabetes; Ferritin; Insulin; Insulin resistance; Iron.

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.