Effects of glucose ingestion on serum fractalkine levels in healthy subjects and newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients

Background: Fractalkine (FKN) is an inflammatory cytokine that has been shown with increased serum levels in diabetic patients and is considered to contribute to the adipose tissue inflammation by supporting monocyte adhesion to adipocytes which has an important role in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Our aim was to evaluate the effects of glucose ingestion on the serum fractalkine levels in healthy subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and newly diagnosed T2DM patients. Methods: A total of 67 patients were included in this study, and they were divided into NGT (n=34) and T2DM (n=33) groups according to their oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) results. The serum FKN and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were measured at 0 and 120 minutes during an OGTT following overnight fasting. Results: The 0-minute (basal) and 120-minute OGTT FKN levels were found to be significantly higher in the T2DM group when compared to the NGT group (p=0.012 and p=0.001, respectively). However, no significant differences were observed in terms of the changes in the basal and 120-minute OGTT FKN levels in the T2DM and NGT groups (p=0.433 and p=0.06, respectively). A significant positive correlation was observed between the 120-minute OGTT FKN and glucose levels in the study group consisting of all of the patients (r=0.331, p=0.006). Conclusions: In this study, basal and post-glycemic load FKN levels were found to be higher in newly diagnosed T2DM patients than those with NGT; however, there was no additional change in FKN levels by glycemic load.