Association of Visfatin with Blood Glucose, Insulin Resistance and Body Mass Index in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes/Pre-Diabetes

In recent studies visfatin has been introduced as a multifaceted protein that plays a role in pathogenesis of many disorders and disease such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of visfatin with fasting blood glucose, insulin resistance and body mass index in patients with type 2 diabetes / impaired fasting glucose (T2DM, IFG) compared to non-diabetic subjects.

This case control study was performed on 160 volunteers. 80 participants were categorized in type 2 diabetic group holding FBG ≥100 (mg/dl) and 80 participants were categorized in non-diabetic (healthy) group holding FBG 70-100 (mg/dl). Serum visfatin levels were measured using enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) and HOMA-IR equation was used for insulin sensitivity check.

The result was presented as mean+ standard deviation and p<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Diabetic group showed a higher level of age in comparison with the non-diabetics. Meanwhile, the means of TG, FBG, BMI, WC, HC and HOMA were also significantly different between the two groups. Visfatin level was not different between diabetics and normal healthy controls. There was a positive correlation between visfatin and BMI in non-diabetics. Also, in diabetics there was a positive correlation between visfatin and BMI, HDL, Hip, insulin and HOMA-IR and a negative correlation between visfatin and FBG level.

Our study showed that there was an association between visfatin and BMI but not with type 2 diabetes. Also, there was a significant association between this adipokine and insulin resistance in diabetic and pre-diabetic patients which indicates the pathological role of visfatin in insulin resistance.