Estimation of interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels in sera from patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Type-2 diabetes mellitus is the most common chronic metabolic disorder characterized by elevation of blood glucose concentration (hyperglycemia) due to defect in carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism. Cytokines have an important role in impairing insulin signaling and selective destruction of insulin-producing beta cells. Thus, the second type of diabetes can be characterized as an immune-mediated disease. This study aimed to evaluate the serum levels of Interleukin-4 (IL-4) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6) of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus among cases from Wasit province-Iraq. A total of 90 randomly selected subjects from Wasit province – Iraq: (60) patients with T2DM, and (30) apparently healthy subjects with normal fasting blood sugar as a control group. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to measure the levels of interleukin-4 IL-4 and interleukin-6 in sera from patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus. The results of this study showed that IL-4 concentrations had a non-significant difference when compared patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus with the control group (154 ± 7.00 versus (vs) 151.49 ± 21, P-value (P) = > 0.05). While patients with T2DM revealed elevated serum levels of IL-6 compared to control group (B 637.1 ± 355.9 versus 266.3 ± 128.8, P = < 0.001).