Diabetes is a common endocrine disease with complications such as retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy which has its monitoring through biomarkers desirable. At present, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbAic) is used for monitoring the long term control of glucose levels in diabetic patients. However, absence of a standardized range, has led to investigations that recently have suggested insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) as a good biomarker for monitoring blood glucose levels in diabetics. The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between IGF-I and HbAic in Type 1 diabetes.
Methods: We designed a cross-sectional case-control study. The study composed of 26 newly diagnosed patients with Type 1 diabetes (15 male and 11 female mean age, 23.7±9.1 years) and 26 healthy controls (9 male and 17 female mean age, 24.1±4.4 years). Levels of fasting plasma glucose (FPG), HbA]C) IGF-I and IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) were measured in both groups. FPG was measured by enzymatic glucose oxidase method and the colorimetric method was used to measure HbAlc. Determination of total serum levels of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 were done using immunoassay methods. P-value<0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results: The mean value of IGF-I concentrations in type 1 diabetics was significantly lower than controls (p< 0.05). A reverse correlation was observed between IGF-I and HbAic. Conclusion: The study indicates that in poorly controlled diabetics, levels of FPG and HbAic rise concurrent with a drop in levels of IGF-I decreases. Our study also showed a significant correlation between IGF-I and HbAie. Therefore, IGF-I could be indirectly used as a biomarker for controlling glucose levels in diabetics.

Keywords: IGF-І - HbA1c – FPG - Type 1 diabetes

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