The relationship between carotid intima-media thickness and serum secreted frizzled-related protein-4 and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 in diabetic patients with cardiovascular diseases

Abstract

We investigated the association between carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) with clusterin (CLU), amylin, secreted frizzled-related protein-4 (SFRP-4), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) levels, and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) individuals with or without coronary artery disease (CAD). This study consisted of four groups: control group (mean ages: 50.3 +/- 10.7 years; 20 females and 15 males), diabetic group (DM; mean ages: 53.9 +/- 11.1; 14 females and 23 males), CAD group (mean ages: 60.1 +/- 43.5; 17 females and 17 males) and CAD+ DM group (mean ages: 62.6 +/- 11.8 years; 18 females and 18 males). CIMT levels in both CAD and CAD+ DM groups are higher than those in controls. CIMT levels in CAD+ DM group are also signifi cantly higher than those in DM group. Left external carotid artery (ECA) was found different from controls only in DM group. The levels of SFRP-4 in control group were signifi cantly lower than those in DM, CAD and CAD+ DM groups. Serum GLP-1 total levels were found to be signifi cantly low in CAD+ DM group when compared to control group. DPP-4 and SFRP-4 levels may be a predictive marker for atherosclerosis in diabetes while particularly in diabetes, they correlate well with HOMA-IR. CIMT has the potential to be a clinically useful predictor of vascular risk in diabetic patients with CAD (Tab. 3, Fig. 2, Ref. 39).