ASSESSMENT OF SERUM ALARIN LEVELS IN PATIENTS WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the potential relationship between plasma alarin levels and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). PATIENTS AND METHOD: We included 154 participants, divided into four groups in a cross-sectional study design. The first group includes patients with T2DM without complications (n=30), the second group patients with T2DM with microvascular complications (T2DM-noC n=32), the third group patients with T2DM with macrovascular complications, T2DM-MV (n=32) and the last group is the healthy control group (n=60). RESULTS: In our study 94 patients were diabetic; 47 females and 47 males. The control group consists of 60 people, 30 women and 30 men. It was found that these had a significant (p>0.05) variation in serum alarin levels among the T2DM (T2DM-noC=3.1±0.7 ng/mL T2DM-mV=2.8±0.4 ng/mL, T2DM-MV= 3.6±0.4 ng/mL) versus control group (15.6±2.6).We failed to find a significant variation of serum alarin levels (p>0.05) between T2DM subgroups. Serum alarin levels were significantly higher among control patients (p<0.05). There was no difference between diabetic sub-groups. CONCLUSION: We concluded that serum alarin levels in patients with T2DM are lower than in normal people. Further studies are needed to investigate the possible prognostic value of alarin in clinical practice in T2DM.

Comparison of plasma and salivary meteorin-like protein levels in patients with newly diagnosed Type-2 diabetes and treated with metformin.

OBJECTIVE: The present study compares the plasma and salivary Metrnl levels of patients newly diagnosed with type-2 diabetes who were treated with metformin for three months with those of a healthy volunteer group and immunohistochemically analyzes Metrnl in salivary glands. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 30 healthy volunteers and 30 newly diagnosed type-2 diabetes patients were included in the study. The newly diagnosed diabetes patients were treated with metformin for three months, and the plasma and salivary metformin levels of both groups were measured at baseline and after the three months of metformin treatment in the patient group. Plasma HbA1c, low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C) and Triglyceride (TG) values of all groups were also measured at baseline following three months of metformin treatment. Biopsies were taken from the parotid and submandibular glands and immunohistochemical staining was performed to show Metrnl immunoreactivity. RESULTS: Plasma Metrnl, HbA1c, LDL-C and TG levels were higher in the newly diagnosed diabetes group than in the other group, and salivary Metrnl levels were higher than in the control group after three months of metrformin treatment. An examination of the immunohistochemical staining of salivary gland biopsies under light microscope revealed Metrnl immunoreactivity in the intralobular and interlobular ducts of the parotid gland, while Metrnl immunoreactivity was observed in the acinar cells in the intralobular striated duct and interlobular ducts in the submandibular gland. CONCLUSIONS: Plasma Metrnl, HbA1c, LDL-C and TG levels were higher in the newly diagnosed diabetes group than in the other group. Metrnl immunoreactivity was detected in the parotid and submandibular glands. The relationship between Metrnl and DM should be investigated in larger groups.

Prevalence of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) infection in chronic hepatitis B patients in eastern Turkey: still a serious problem to consider.

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is a serious cause of liver-related morbidity and mortality. Coexistent infection with HDV tends to aggravate the course of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated liver disease. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HDV infection among patients chronically infected with HBV in the Elazig region, which is in eastern Turkey. A group of 282 patients infected with chronic HBV were investigated for the study. Anti-HDV seropositivity was evaluated in all patients. The anti-HDV-positive patients were further tested for HDV RNA. Severity of liver disease was assessed by liver biopsy. Regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between independent variables and HDV positivity. Of 282 chronic HBV patients, 192 were men (68.1%) and 90 were women (31.9%). The mean age was 43.8 ± 12.7 (between 18 and 73 years). Anti-HDV was positive in 45.5% of the patients (128/282). Among the 128 anti-HDV-positive patients, 116 were checked for HDV RNA and 56.9% were found positive (66/116). Chronic HDV infection rate was therefore present in at least 23.4% of the whole study group (66/282). There were 83 patients with cirrhosis (29.4%) in the study group. Anti-HDV seroprevalence and HDV RNA presence were higher in those with cirrhosis (61.4% and 42.2%, respectively). No significant relationship was found between anti-HDV seropositivity and demographic factors such as age, sex and operation or transfusion history except family history. HDV-RNA-positive patients had significantly higher ALT and lower albumin levels when compared to HDV-RNA-negative patients. HDV-RNA-positive patients also had a significantly higher fibrosis stage. In conclusion, these findings demonstrated that HDV infection is endemic and still a serious problem in the Elazig region of eastern Turkey. HDV infection is significantly related to the family exposure and increases the risk of severe liver fibrosis in this region.