Potential Mediating Role of Iron Biomarkers in the Association of Sex With Glucose, Insulin, and Type 2 Diabetes

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  • Farnaz Khatami
  • Lange, Theis
  • Dion Groothof
  • Noushin Sadat Ahanchi
  • Hugo G. Quezada-Pinedo
  • Hamidreza Raeisi-Dehkordi
  • Martin H. De Borst
  • Pedro Marques Vidal
  • Mohan Sailesh
  • Dorairaj Prabhakaran
  • Arjola Bano
  • Stephan J.L. Bakker
  • Taulant Muka
  • Michele F. Eisenga

Context: Sex-specific prevalence and incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) have been reported, but the underlying mechanisms are uncertain. Objective: In this study, we aimed to investigate whether iron biomarkers mediate the association between biological sex and glucose metabolism and the incidence of T2D. Methods: We used data from the general population enrolled in the prospective Prevention of REnal and Vascular ENd-stage Disease study in Groningen, The Netherlands. We measured ferritin, transferrin saturation (TSAT), hepcidin, soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), fasting plasma insulin (FPI) levels, and incidence of T2D. We used multivariable regression and mediation analyses to investigate our hypothesis. All iron biomarkers, FPG, and FPI were log-transformed. Results: The mean (SD) age of the 5312 (51.3% female) individuals was 52.2 (11.6) years. Compared with males, females had lower FPG (β = -.01; 95% CI -0.02, -0.01) and FPI (β = -.03; 95% CI -0.05, -0.02) levels. Ferritin, hepcidin, and sTfR showed potential mediating effects on the association between sex and FPG, 21%, 5%, and 7.1%, respectively. Furthermore, these variables mediated 48.6%, 5.7%, and 3.1% of the association between sex and FPI, respectively. Alternatively, TSAT had a suppressive mediating role in the association of sex with FPG and FPI. The incidence of T2D was lower in females than in males (hazard ratio 0.58; 95% CI 0.44, 0.77), with 19.2% of this difference being mediated by ferritin. Conclusion: Iron biomarkers may partially mediate the association between sex and glucose homeostasis. Future studies addressing the causality of our findings are needed.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberbvae098
JournalJournal of the Endocrine Society
Volume8
Issue number7
Number of pages9
ISSN0743-5800
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Endocrine Society.

    Research areas

  • glucose hemostasis, iron biomarkers, sex, type 2 diabetes

ID: 394973793