Evaluation of tumour necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-2 soluble receptor, nitric oxide metabolites, and lipids as inflammatory markers in type 2 diabetes mellitus

This study compared the results of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-2 soluble receptor (sIL-2R), nitric oxide metabolites (NOx), C reactive protein (CRP), and lipids (total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL-cholesterol), lowdensity lipoprotein (LDL-cholesterol), and triglycerides) between control group (nondiabetic subjects) and overweight type 2 DM subjects. To restrict the influence of variables that could interfere in the interpretation of data, subjects with obesity and/or acute or chronic inflammatory disease, haemoglobinopathies, recent use of antibiotics, antiinflammatory drugs, and trauma were excluded. Type 2 DM patients (n = 39; age 53.3 +/- 9.0 years; median glycated haemoglobin A(1c) < 8%) presented higher levels of TNF-alpha, triglycerides (P < .01), NOx and sIL-2R (P < .05) than control group (n = 28; age 39.7 +/- 14.1 years). CRP, LDL-cholesterol, total cholesterol, and HDL-cholesterol did not differ among groups. Diabetic women (n = 21) had higher levels of TNF- a, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and HDL-cholesterol than diabetic men (n = 18) (P < .05), but there were no differences among sexes in the control group. This study indicates that increased level of proinflammatory markers occurs in type 2 DM even in the absence of obesity and marked hyperglycaemia, confirming that the inflammation course of the atherosclerotic process is more severe in diabetic patients than in nondiabetic subjects. Copyright (c) 2006 Flavia Ozorio Pereira et al.