Insulin resistance (IR) is considered to be one of the most important pathogenesis of glycolipid metabolism disorders. However, the molecular mechanism responsible for IR is not fully understood. Recently, the chronic inflammation has been proposed to be involved in the pathogenesis of IR. In this study, we aim to investigate the concentrations of plasma progranulin in Chinese patients with obesity (OB) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and its relationship to IR. Plasma progranulin concentrations were significantly higher in the T2DM patients than in the normal glucose tolerant (NGT) subjects (P < 0.01). Within the T2DM and the NGT patients, the concentrations of progranulin were significantly higher in obese subjects than that in the normal weight subjects (225.22 ± 34.39 ng/mL versus 195.59 ± 50.47 ng/mL and 183.79 ± 61.63 ng/mL versus 148.69 ± 55.27 ng/mL, P < 0.05). Plasma progranulin concentrations correlated positively with weight, waist circumferences, BMI, HbA1c, TG, IL-6, FINS and HOMA-IR (P < 0.05), while correlated negatively with HOMA- β (P < 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that BMI, HbA1c, IL-6 and TG correlated independently with circulating progranulin concentrations (P < 0.05). These results suggested that Plasma progranulin concentrations were higher in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity and correlated closely with glycolipid metabolism, chronic inflammation and IR.