Biochemical investigation of gender-specific association between insulin resistance and inflammatory biomarkers in types 2 diabetic patients

Inflammatory mediators play a key role in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and development of insulin resistance (IR). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the gender-specific association between serum levels of inflammatory biomarkers and development of IR in type 2 diabetic patients. We recruited 90 study participants and collected their blood samples to measure the serum level of interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), C-reactive protein (CRP), insulin and glucose. We found that the serum levels of IL-6 (< 0.0001), TNF-alpha ( < 0.0001) and CRP (< 0.0001) in type 2 diabetic patients were significantly high as compared to control participants. Moreover, we also found that in female diabetic patients, a significant association was observed between the elevated levels of IL-6 (r = 0.8819, R-2 = 0.7778), TNF-alpha (r = 0.9833, R-2 = 0.9669) and CRP (r = 0.9529, R-2 = 0.9080) and increased risk of developing IR when compared with that of the serum levels of IL-6 (r = 0.7977, R-2 = 0.6364), TNF-alpha (r = 0.9445, R-2 = 0.8920) and CRP (r = 0.9051, R-2 = 0.8192) of male diabetic patients. Additionally, we also found that the Body mass index (BMI) of female diabetic patients was strongly correlated (r = 0.9694, R-2 = 0.9398) with the increased incidence of IR as compared to that of the BMI (r = 0.9188, R-2 = 0.8442) of male diabetic patients. The key findings of present study exhibit that gender differences significantly influence the association of inflammatory biomarkers with the development of IR in T2DM.