Tracking Galectin-9 and Galectin-14 Production Levels in Type 2 Diabetics During Treatment with Anti Hyperglycemic Drugs

Abstract

Background: Nearly 90 to 95 % of individual who suffer from diabetes have type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Generally, the body can generate the insulin in this type of diabetes, but it is failed in secretion the proper amount of insulin. This type of diabetes previously included insulin independent diabetes, or adult-onset diabetes. It is often resistant to the action of insulin, and caused by insulin resistance in the liver and skeletal muscle, increasing glucose production in the liver, over production of free fatty acids by fat cells and relative insulin deficiency.

Materials: ninety participants were included in the current study, depending on their health status, participants were classified into 70 patients with type 2 diabetes and 20 healthy control groups. Sandwich-ELISA method was applied to evaluate insulin, galectin-9 and galectin-14 in the study samples.

Results: The study indicated that there were no significant differences in BMI between the two sexes in the four study groups. Moreover; the study demonstrated that there is no direct effect of BMI on the type of defect that causes one of the sexes to develop T2DM.The results of the statistical analysis show that there are significant differences when comparing G1 and G3 together, while; the study showed the absence of significant differences when comparing the rest of the illness groups with each other, as well as, when comparing the three T2DM groups with the healthy control group. Outcomes of the current study indicated that galectin-9 levels were comparable in both sexes, as no statistical differences were recorded when galectin-9 levels were compared between the two sexes in the four studied groups. Likewise, no statistically significant differences were observed when comparing individuals of the same sex with their counterparts in the other groups, except the differences in the levels of this protein which recorded when comparing males in the first and third groups together. The statistical analysis of galectin-14 data showed that there were significant differences when comparing the first pathological group (G1) with the G2 (p=0.024) and G3 (p=0.045), respectively, in the same way, a significant increase in galactin-14 levels was observed in G2 compared to healthy people. While the study did not show significant differences when comparing the remaining diseased groups together, as well as when comparing the G1 and G3 with the control group. The highest concentration of galectin-14 (3534.300 pg/mL) was observed in the sample of a 52-year-old woman in G2, who has a family history of diabetes and was diagnosed with the disease 10 years before the current study, while the lowest value for this parameter (68.2 pg/mL) was illustrated in a 51-year-old woman in the control group which indicates the possibility of using galectin-14 in follow-up damage resulting from a decline in the efficiency of the pancreas in producing insulin, coinciding with the occurrence of insulin resistance in women more than in men.

Conclusions: Pancreatic beta cells are rich in galectin-9 and galectin-14, and damage of these cells leads to a decrease in these protein levels. Galectins-9 and 14 function as immune proteins whose production coincides with inflammatory arousal such as insulin resistance in diabetic patients. Galectin-9 and galectin-14 are important tools in distinguishing between type 2 diabetes caused by decreased insulin production due to a defect in pancreatic beta cells or diabetes caused by impaired insulin action due to insulin resistance.