Abstract
Recently, SFRP4 was identified as a molecular link between islet inflammation and
defective insulin secretion. Gene co-expression analysis detected a molecule associated
with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D), elevated HbA1c, and reduced insulin secretion
in mice as well as in a pilot sample of humans. To our knowledge SFRP4 has never been
investigated in patients with different types of diabetes. We included 179 patients:
46 with type 1 diabetes (T1D), 30 age matched healthy controls for patients with T1D
(CO-T1D), 55 with T2D, 37 with latent autoimmune diabetes of the adult (LADA) and
30 healthy controls (CO) for patients with T2D and LADA. Apart from anthropometric
data, lipids and renal parameters were assessed. SFRP4 levels were measured by a commercial
ELISA. Patients with diabetes had significant higher SFRP4 levels than CO: T2D vs.
CO: 37.1±26.7 vs. 8.8±3.0 ng/ml, p<0.001; LADA vs. CO: 15.6±6.2 vs. 8.7±3.0 ng/ml,
p<0.001; T1D vs. CO-T1D: 24.6±17.9 vs. 16.9±4.5 ng/ml, p=0.011. SFRP4 levels were
correlated with age, BMI, HbA1c, HDL-cholesterol, and triglycerides. A multivariate
model revealed HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides and BMI as predictors for SFRP4. This
is the first study demonstrating that SFRP4 is significantly increased in patients
with different types of diabetes suggesting that this protein is generally involved
in islet dysfunction and potentially subclinical inflammation irrespective of type
of diabetes.
Key words
SFRP4 - type 1 diabetes - type 2 diabetes - LADA diabetes
