Heterogeneity of Altered Cytokine Levels Across the Clinical Spectrum of Diabetes in China

OBJECTIVE—To determine the relationship between selected cytokines and diabetes in Chinese subjects. RESEARCHDESIGNANDMETHODS—Adult patients with recent-onset type 1 diabe-tes (n = 53), latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) (n = 250), and type 2 diabetes (n = 285) frommultiple centers were compared with normal subjects (n = 196). We centrally tested serum GAD antibodies (GADAs), interleukin-6 (IL-6), lipocalin 2 (LCN2), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and adiponectin. RESULTS—After adjustment for age, sex, and BMI, all diabetes types had increased IL-6 and LCN2 (P, 0.01), and all four cytokines were increased in LADA (P, 0.01). In type 1 diabetes, adiponectin but not hs-CRPwas increased (P, 0.01), whereas in type 2 diabetes, hs-CRP but not adiponectin was increased (P, 0.01). Adiponectin was correlated positively with GADA titer and negatively with hs-CRP (P, 0.01 for both). CONCLUSIONS—In China, inflammatory markers are increased in all three major types of diabetes, but probably for different reasons, even in autoimmune diabetes. Diabetes Care 34:1639–1641, 201