Serum levels of immunoglobulins in an adult population and their relationship with type 2 diabetes.

Objective: Some studies have found patients with diabetes had an impaired humoral immune response. Immunoglobulins provide key information on the humoral immune status. But few population-based studies comprehensively estimated the serum immunoglobulins concentration in type 2 diabetes (T2D). So we design a cross-sectional study to investigate the relationships between immunoglobulin levels and prevalence of T2D in a large-scale adult population.

Methods: A cross-sectional assessment was performed in 10,691 participants living in Tianjin, China. Type 2 diabetes was defined in accordance with the criteria of the world health organization, and serum levels of immunoglobulins were determined by the immunonephelometric technique. Adjusted logistic models were used to assess relationships between the quintiles of immunoglobulins concentration and the prevalence of T2D.

Results: In this study, the prevalence of T2D was 11.7%, and the means (standard deviation) of immunoglobulins (IgG, IgE, IgM, IgA) were 1192.3 (241.1)mg/dL, 92.3 (234.6)IU/mL, 104.8 (55.8)mg/dL, 234.1 (96.2)mg/dL, respectively. The adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of T2D for the highest immunoglobulins (IgG, IgE, IgM, IgA) quintile, when compared to the lowest quintile were 0.64 (0.52, 0.78), 1.00 (0.81, 1.22), 0.77 (0.62, 0.95) and 1.57 (1.29, 1.92), respectively.

Conclusions: Decreased IgG and IgM, and increased IgA levels were independently related to the prevalence of T2D among the adult population. Our findings indicate that the immunoglobulins might useful predictive factors for T2D in the general adult population. Further studies are needed to explore the causality and exact mechanisms of immunoglobulins in T2D.