Interleukin-8, ferritin and soluble transferrin receptors in type II diabetes mellitus

¹Seham A. Abou-Shousha, ²Mona H. Abd El-Megeed, ³Hala K. Sultan

Departments of ¹Immunology and ³Hematology, Medical Research Institute, and Department of ²Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.

Type II diabetes mellitus (DM) is the most common form of diabetes that constitutes the majority of cases worldwide including Egypt. Chronic elevated glucose level in DM increases monocyte adhesion to aortic endothelial cells (ECs) which is mediated primarily through induction of interleukin-8 (IL-8). This study aimed to investigate the possible role of IL-8 as a potent chemoattractant, pro-inflammatory cytokine in the immuno-inflammatory response of type II diabetic patients in correlation to ferritin and sTFR as markers of glucose homeostasis that characterizes the disease. The current work was conducted on 20 diabetic females and 10 healthy age and sex matching subjects as a group of control. Serum levels of IL-8, ferritin and sTFR were measured in all study subjects under investigation. Results revealed that both serum levels of IL-8 and ferritin were significantly elevated in type II diabetic patients (P = 0.0029 and 0.03 respectively) compared with those of control group while no significant difference was detected between sTFR levels in diabetic patient and control groups. In addition, a significant positive correlation was detected (P = 0.032) between serum levels of IL-8 and sTFR of the studied diabetic patient group. In conclusion, quantitative determination of IL-8, ferritin and sTFR could help in predicting type II diabetes-associated immuno-inflammatory manifestations characterize the micro-and macrovascular disease complications, particularly for high risk populations.