Original Article

Vol. 6 No. 3 (2002): Endocrinology Research and Practice

Correlation Between Insulin-Receptor Binding and Insulin Resistance Measured By the Homeostasis Model Assessment

Main Article Content

Tsvetalina I. Tankova
Dragomir J. Koev

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The study was designed to investigate the correlation between insulin-receptor binding and insulin resistance in obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus and in a group of healthy normal-weight subjects. 121 subjects were enrolled in the study - 32 subjects with different degrees of obesity (mean age 44.1±12.1 years); 43 newly-diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients (mean age 49.8±9.5 years) and 46 healthy controls (mean age 47.7±10. 8 years). Insulin-receptor binding was studied on circulating mononuclear blood cells. Results are presented as the number of total and high-affinity receptors per cell and receptor affinity. Insulin resistance was estimated using the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR). We found a significant negative correlation between the total number of insulin receptors per cell and HOMA-IR (r=-0.71, p<0.0001) and the number o f high-affinity insulin receptors and HOMA-IR (r=-0.61, p=0.001) and no correlation between receptor affinity and HOMA-IR (r=0.07, p>0.1) in the whole study population. When analysing the groups separately we found the strongest correlation between insulin receptors and HOMA-IR in the obese subjects (r=-0.84, p<0.0001) compared with the type 2 diabetic patients (r=-0.58, p=0.001) and the healthy controls (r=-0.51, p=0.001) . Our results demonstrate that there is a significant correlation between the number of insulin receptors, measured on mononuclear blood cells, and insulin resistance estimated by HOMA index in type 2 diabetic patients, in obese subjects and in healthy controls.


 

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