Type 2 diabetes is a common disease affecting 10% of the world’s adult population. Heredity and being overweight are known risk factors for the disease.
And in a new Swedish study from the Karolinska Institute, researchers show that women and men with a predisposition to diabetes have different risk factors that predict type 2 diabetes and prediabetes (a condition in which some criteria for diagnosing diabetes overlap). findings recently published in the journal Frontiers. in Endocrinology.
In healthy women, low serum levels of the adipose tissue protein adiponectin was a strong independent predictor of type 2 diabetes and future prediabetes.
In healthy men, low serum IGFBP-1 was a strong and independent predictor of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, meaning that these proteins, which are indicators of insulin sensitivity in adipose tissue (adiponectin), liver, and muscle (IGFBP-1), It can predict whether a person will be at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes 10 years from now.
An earlier study in Shanghai in 2016 found gender differences in the same direction.
In men with prediabetes, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes was significantly reduced if their physical activity and muscle mass increased. In contrast, the same study found that women with prediabetes should avoid increased waist circumference and abdominal obesity or reduce large waist circumference to prevent type 2 diabetes.
“Our study shows why this gender difference comes into play when it comes to preventive lifestyles,” says Christine Prismar, associate professor of diabetes research in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery. “The amount of proteins we studied in men and women increases with increasing muscle mass and physical activity (IGFBP-1), as well as decreasing abdominal obesity and calorie restriction (adiponectin),” she adds.
This may explain why, among women with abdominal obesity, regular exercise is not enough to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
“We have previously shown that waist circumference is a strong independent predictor of type 2 diabetes in women, and now we have been able to show that it is associated with reduced production of adiponectin, a protein/hormone produced in adipose tissue that, among other things, protects against stress,” says Prismar. cells.”
Other human and mouse studies have shown that high normal levels of adiponectin and high normal levels of the liver protein IGFBP-1 protect against type 2 diabetes.
Source: Medical Express
