Circulating levels of endothelial adhesion molecules linked to the risk of developing type 2 diabetes
Document Actions
Leukocyte adhesion/rolling to vascular endothelium, an early event in atherosclerosis, is mediated by various cellular adhesion molecules (CAMs) present on cytokine-activated endothelial surface. Elevated CAMs, a marker of endothelial dysfunction, are associated with insulin resistance and/or raised circulating inflammatory cytokines. In a prospective case-control study, the associations between plasma levels of E-selectin, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and type 2 diabetes were assessed in 82069 initially healthy women, 50 to 79 years of age, from the Women’s Health Initiative Study. During a median follow-up of 5.9 years, 1584 incident diabetes cases occurred; they were matched with 2198 control subjects. Compared with control subjects, baseline median levels of the biomarkers were each significantly higher in subjects with incident type 2 diabetes (all P values <0.001). After adjusting for risk factors, the relative risk of developing diabetes among women in the highest quartile versus the lowest quartile was 3.46 for E-selectin (P for trend <0.0001), 2.34 for ICAM-1 (P for trend <0.0001), and 1.48 for VCAM-1(P for trend =0.009). According to the authors, these findings corroborate the etiological role of endothelial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes in women.
Abstract
