Transforming Growth Factor-β1 and Incident Type 2 Diabetes
Results from the MONICA/KORA case-cohort study, 1984–2002
- Christian Herder, PHD, MSC1,
- Astrid Zierer, PHD2,
- Wolfgang Koenig, MD3,
- Michael Roden, MD1,4,
- Christa Meisinger, MD, MPH2 and
- Barbara Thorand, PHD, MPH2
- 1Institute of Clinical Diabetology, German Diabetes Center, Leibniz Center for Diabetes Research at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany;
- 2Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany;
- 3Department of Internal Medicine II-Cardiology, University of Ulm Medical Center, Ulm, Germany;
- 4Department of Medicine/Metabolic Diseases, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
- Corresponding author: Wolfgang Koenig, wolfgang.koenig{at}uniklinik-ulm.de.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Subclinical inflammation leads to insulin resistance and β-cell dysfunction. This study aimed to assess whether levels of circulating transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1)—a central, mainly immunosuppressive, and anti-inflammatory cytokine—were associated with incident type 2 diabetes.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We measured serum levels of TGF-β1 from 460 individuals with and 1,474 individuals without incident type 2 diabetes in a prospective case-cohort study within the population-based MONICA (MONItoring of Trends and Determinants in CArdiovascular Disease)/KORA (Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg) cohort.
RESULTS Elevated TGF-β1 concentrations were associated with higher, not lower, risk for type 2 diabetes (age-, sex-, and survey-adjusted hazard ratios [95% CI] for increasing TGF-β1 tertiles: 1.0, 1.08 [0.83–1.42], and 1.41 [1.08–1.83]; Pfortrend = 0.012). Adjustment for BMI and metabolic and lifestyle factors had virtually no impact on the effect size.
CONCLUSIONS Elevated serum concentrations of the cytokine TGF-β1 indicate an increased risk for type 2 diabetes. TGF-β1 may be upregulated to counterbalance metabolic and immunological disturbances preceding type 2 diabetes.
Footnotes
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
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- Received March 10, 2009.
- Accepted July 3, 2009.
- © 2009 by the American Diabetes Association.
