Serum spexin differed in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients according to body mass index and increased with the improvement of metabolic status

Serum spexin differed in newly diagnosed T2DM patients according to BMI and was lowest in the DM-OB group. With the improvement of metabolic indicators, especially the decline in BMI, serum spexin increased significantly after MMC management.

A total of 323 newly diagnosed T2DM patients from national Metabolic Management Center (MMC) in Shanghai General Hospital were recruited. T2DM patients were categorized into three groups: diabetes with obesity group (DM-OB group, BMI≥28 kg/m2, n=89), diabetes with overweight group (DM-OV group, 24≤BMI<28 kg/m2, n=161), and diabetes with normal weight group (DM-NW group, 18≤BMI<24 kg/m2, n=73). In addition, 41 volunteers with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) were used as controls. Spexin and metabolic parameters were compared at baseline, and changes after MMC follow-up in 100 DM patients were investigated.

The aim of this study was to explore serum spexin levels in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with different body mass indexes (BMIs) and to investigate the changes of spexin after improvement of metabolic indicators.

In the DM-OB group, the level of spexin was significantly lower than that in the DM-OV group and the DM-NW group (P < 0.01). Spexin was significantly negatively related to body mass index (BMI, β=-0.214, P<0.001), waist circumference (β=-0.249, P<0.001), visceral fat area (VFA, β=-0.214, P<0.001), and subcutaneous fat area (SFA, β=-0.265, P<0.001) after adjustment for age and sex. Among all the metabolic indicators, the decline in BMI in the DM-OB group was the most obvious among those in the three groups (-3.7 ± 0.8 kg/m2 vs. -0.9 ± 0.3 kg/m2 vs. 0.7 ± 0.6 kg/m2, P<0.01) after one year of MMC standardized management. The serum spexin level in the DM-OB group increased the most (1.00 ± 0.10 ng/mL vs. 0.49 ± 0.06 ng/mL in DM-OV group and 0.58 ± 0.09 ng/mL in DM-NW group, P < 0.001). Conclusions: Serum spexin differed in newly diagnosed T2DM patients according to BMI and was lowest in the DM-OB group. With the improvement of metabolic indicators, especially the decline in BMI, serum spexin increased significantly after MMC management.