Presepsin Levels in Infection-Free Subjects with Diabetes Mellitus: An Exploratory Study

Systemic inflammation has been recognized as the cause and consequence of metabolic dysregulation in diabetes mellitus (DM). Presepsin has recently emerged as a promising biomarker for the detection of bacterial infections and sepsis. There is evidence that gut dysbiosis results in the increased circulating concentrations of Gram-negative bacteria lipopolysaccharide, the linkage of presepsin, which in turn promotes insulin resistance and correlates with the risk of diabetic complications. Thus, we hypothesized that presepsin could reflect the magnitude of systemic inflammation and metabolic decompensation in patients with DM even in the absence of infection. In this cross-sectional pilot study, we included 75 infection-free individuals with well-controlled (<i>n</i> = 19) and uncontrolled (<i>n</i> = 23) type 2 diabetes (T2D), well-controlled (<i>n</i> = 10) and uncontrolled (<i>n</i> = 10) type 1 diabetes (T1D), and normoglycemic controls (<i>n</i> = 13). Presepsin levels were compared between the groups and potential associations with demographic, clinical, and laboratory parameters were explored. We observed that the duration of DM was associated with presepsin values (<i>p</i> = 0.008). When the participants were classified into the type of DM groups, the presepsin levels were found to be lower in the patients with T2D compared to those with T1D (<i>p</i> = 0.008). However, significance in that case was driven by the difference between the well-controlled groups. After adjusting for the effects of DM duration, presepsin was significantly lower in the well-controlled T2D group compared to the well-controlled T1D group [1.34 (2.02) vs. 2.22 (4.20) ng/mL, <i>p</i> = 0.01]. Furthermore, we adjusted our findings for various confounders, including age, body mass index, and waist circumference, and found that the difference in the presepsin values between the adequately controlled groups remained significant (<i>p</i> = 0.048). In conclusion, our findings suggest that presepsin could potentially serve as a surrogate marker of inflammation and metabolic control in people with DM.