The relationship between serum VCAM-1 and Alzheimer’s disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have reported that diabetes mellitus (DM) is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) plays an important role in the pathological process of atherosclerosis. The aim was to elucidate the relationship between serum VCAM-1 and early AD in DM patients. Methods: Serum samples for VCAM-1 were tested in 208 DM patients. All included DM patients were followed up for a median of 36 months prospectively. The prognostic value of serum VCAM-1 for predicting AD events was analyzed by using Cox proportional hazard. Results: Serum VCAM-1 was independently associated with AD history after adjusting for related confounding factors in patients with DM at baseline by using the logistic regression analysis (OR=1.861; 95% CI, 1.435–2.539; Ptrend=0.020). The Cox proportional hazard model suggested that VCAM-1 was a prognostic factor for AD events in the DM patients (HR=2.728; 95% CI, 1.785–5.439; Ptrend<0.001). Stratified analysis showed that the signifi-cant association between AD event and serum VCAM-1 in DM patients was not affective by CVD history. Conclusion: Our results showed that higher VCAM-1 levels were significantly related to a higher risk of AD events in DM patients. The serum biomarker might be beneficial to predict AD early. Serum VCAM-1 might be a good biochemical parameter for predicting AD in DM.