Correlation between β-cell activity and iron metabolism of type 2 diabetics with varying disease durations

Objective To explore the correlation between pancreatic β-cell function and iron metabolism markers in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) at different disease durations. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 120 T2DM patients from the Department of Endocrinology at Nanjing Meishan Hospital and 120 healthy individuals from the Physical Examination Center of Jiangsu Province People’s Hospital during the same period from May 2023 to August 2023. Clinical data and laboratory indicators were compared between T2DM patients and healthy individuals. Patients were divided into three groups based on disease duration: group A (0-＜5 years, 38 cases), group B (5-＜10 years, 45 cases), and group C (≥10 years, 37 cases), and the differences in clinical data among the three groups were compared. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between pancreatic β-cell function and general information, iron metabolism indicators, and glycolipid metabolism indicators. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between pancreatic β-cell function index (HOMA-β) and serum iron (SI), serum ferritin (SF), serum transferrin (Trf), and transferrin saturation (TS) in T2DM patients with different disease durations. Results The SF level in the T2DM group was higher than that in the healthy control group [(199.88±10.73)ng/mL vs (164.46±9.69)ng/mL, P＜0.05]. Pearson correlation analysis showed that Homa-β was positively correlated with BMI, SI, and TS and negatively correlated with glycosylated haemoglobin(HbA1c) and lg (SF) (P＜0.01). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that after adjusting for covariates, HOMA-β in group A was negatively correlated with lg (SF) (β=-62.00, 95%CI: -79.12 to -44.87, P＜0.01) and positively correlated with TS (β=1.03, 95%CI: 0.37 to 1.70, P＜0.05) and Trf (β=31.24, 95%CI: 5.56 to 56.92, P＜0.05), and group B HOMA-β was positively correlated with TS (β=1.50, 95%CI: 0.25 to 2.76, P＜0.05); Group C Homa-β showed no correlation with iron metabolism indicators. Conclusion Pancreatic β-cell function in T2DM patients gradually declines with disease duration, accompanied by iron metabolism disorders. Pancreatic β-cell function in T2DM patients with a short disease duration is associated with iron metabolism indicators SF, Trf, and TS.