Abstract
PURPOSE: To investigate Henagliflozin's effect on high-molecular-weight (HMW) adiponectin in serum and saliva of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study included 66 patients with T2DM consecutively recruited from two community health service stations in southeastern Shanxi Province between December 2023 and November 2024, along with 66 healthy individuals as the normal control group. T2DM patients with glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) >7% and without drug treatment received henagliflozin (10 mg once daily) for 12 weeks. The general data of the two groups before and after treatment were collected and the clinical indicators were detected, including body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), etc. At the same time, the blood and salivary samples of the two groups were collected before and after treatment, and the levels of HMW adiponectin in serum and saliva were detected by ELISA. Statistical comparisons were performed using paired or unpaired t-tests for normally distributed variables and the Mann-Whitney U test for non-normally distributed ones. The correlation between serum and saliva HMW adiponectin levels was assessed using Spearman's rank correlation. Furthermore, stepwise linear regression was employed to identify factors affecting HMW adiponectin levels in serum and saliva. RESULTS: Compared with the healthy control group, the serum and salivary levels of HMW adiponectin were decreased in T2DM patients (4.10 (2.30,6.80) VS 3.70 (1.55,5.65), 2.35 (0.87,5.80) VS 1.80 (0.72,4.53), P < 0.05). T2DM patients treated with henggliflozin for 12 weeks exhibited significant increases in both serum and salivary HMW adiponectin levels (3.70 (1.55,5.65) VS 4.70 (2.65,8.60), 1.80 (0.72,4.53) VS 3.85 (1.88,10.33), p < 0.05). Furthermore, significant improvements were observed in multiple metabolic parameters, including reductions in DBP, BMI, TC and TG (p < 0.05). A weak but statistically significant correlation was found between serum and salivary adiponectin levels (r = 0.210, R² = 0.044; p < 0.05). In order to reveal the influence factors of adiponectin in serum and saliva, linear stepwise regression analysis showed that waist circumference was an independent risk factor for adiponectin in serum (95% CI: -0.087, -0.015; P < 0.05), and gender was an independent risk factor for adiponectin in saliva (95% CI: -4.663, -0.529; P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: In our study, serum and salivary HMW adiponectin levels were decreased in patients with T2DM, and Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors could improve serum and salivary HMW adiponectin levels after treatment, which is expected to be a major target for diabetes treatment.