Assessment of Serum Concentrations of Adropin, Afamin, and Neudesin in Children with Type 1 Diabetes

Abstract

Introduction: The increasing knowledge of adropin, afamin, and neudesin and the regulation of glucose metabolism and insulin resistance allows for the assessment of the differences in their concentrations between the groups with varied duration of diabetes mellitus (DM).

Aim of the study: Assessment of serum levels of adropin, afamin, and neudesin in children with type 1 diabetes, with respect to the disease duration.

Materials and methods: The study consisted of 138 patients aged 5-18 years (M 40.58%). Children with type 1 diabetes (n = 68) were compared to the control group (n = 70). The diabetic group was divided into 4 subgroups: (I) newly diagnosed patients, after an episode of ketoacidosis (n = 14), (II) duration no longer than 5 years (n = 18), (III) 5 to 10 years (n = 27), and (IV) longer than 10 years (n = 9). Serum concentrations of adropin, afamin, and neudesin were assessed and compared between the groups of patients. The criterion for statistical significance was p < 0.05.

Results: The concentrations of adropin and afamin across all subgroups were lower than that in the control group, while neudesin levels were higher in diabetic patients compared to the control group. The differences were statistically significant.

Conclusions: Adropin, afamin, and neudesin may play a major role in the regulation of glucose metabolism and have a significant potential as novel biomarkers to predict future metabolic disorders. However, further multicentre studies on a larger cohort of patients are necessary to specify the role of these substances in the course and treatment of type 1 diabetes.