Evaluation of Irisin and Adropin Biomarkers in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Its Relationship with Risk Factors

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder characterized by an elevated blood glucose level, resulting from impairments in insulin action, insulin secretion, or both; which causes abnormalities in the metabolism of carbohydrates, protein, and lipids. Chronic hyperglycemia is associated with long-term damage, dysfunction, and failure of various organs. Adropin and irisin are newly described proteins that can be an essential component in the pathophysiological pathways of diabetes mellitus. The current study was designed to evaluate Irisin and Adropin biochemical markers in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and their correlation with risk factors.

 A case control study, that included 90 patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus and 90 healthy individuals, who matched for both age and sex with patients. Fasting blood sugar (FBS), HbA1c, serum insulin, total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides (TG), irisin and adropin were measured at the chemistry laboratory of AL-Faihaa teaching Hospital by standard methods.

Serum irisin (8.154±1.642 vs. 14.06±3.916 ng/ml) and adropin (25.39±8.897 vs. 59.43±8.768 pg/ml) levels were significantly lower in the patient group than in the control cases, respectively (P.value<0.0001). Serum adropin levels were significantly and positively correlated with age (r=0.236, P=0.025) and negatively with BMI (r=-0.209, P=0.048). While, serum irisin levels were significantly and negatively correlated with TG (r=-0.248, P=0.018). Based on ROC analysis, the AUC for irisin was 0.937 (95% CI: 0.906-0.969), which showed a sensitivity of 91.1% and a specificity of 80.0% at the cut-off of 9.715 (P<0.0001). In addition, the AUC for adropin was 0.991 (95% CI: 0.980-1.00), which showed a sensitivity of 100.0% and a specificity of 91.1% for this biomarker at a cut-off of 37.945 (P<0.0001).

Our findings showed that the serum levels of irisin and adropin were lower in the patient group than in the control group. Probably, the reduction of adropin and irisin may be used as a biomarker to predict the risk of T2DM, which requires more studies in this regard.