Nasser M. Al-Daghri¹, Omar S. Al-Attas¹, Mohammad Al-Onazi¹, Khalid Al-Rubeaan² and Hussein Al-Najjar¹

¹College of Science Biochemistry Department, King Saud University Riyadh, K.S.A. ²Diabetes Center, King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital, Riyadh, K.S.A.

Abstract

Background: The controversial roles played by major adipocytokines such as resistin, leptin and adiponectin in obesity and insulin resistance were extensively studied. This study aims to explore for the first time the possible effect of a family history of type 2 diabetes mellitus and smoking on non-diabetic individuals and associations to other metabolic parameters.

Results: In females there were significantly lower adiponectin levels among those with family history compared to those without (p 0.045); BMI and family history of type 2 diabetes contributed significantly to adiponectin levels with 43.7% variance (r² 19.1; p 0.018). In males there was a significant decrease in resistin levels of those with smoking history (p 0.05). Linear regression showed a correlation between log resistin and LDL, and ApoA1 in all subjects (p-values 007, 0.0009 and R² 0.12, 0.08 respectively).

Conclusion: This study showed for the first time that among the three adipocytokines, adiponectin was the only one to exhibit variations in females alone with regard to a family history of type 2 diabetes; the rest were independent of smoking. This study supports the view that adiponectin is a potential risk marker for type 2 diabetes.