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Medical researchers at the Brigham and Women's Hospital have discovered a strong association between the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and high blood levels of IL-6 and CRP. High blood plasma levels of interleukin 6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) are often characteristics of an inflammatory response.

The study consisted of a total of 27,628 female health professionals who were free of diabetes at enrollment in 1992. Four years later, some 188 of the women had been diagnosed with diabetes. They were paired with 362 healthy, age-matched controls and blood levels of IL-6 and CRP (at baseline) were compared between the two groups.

The researchers found that women with a high CRP level had a 15.7 times higher risk of diabetes than did women with a low level (highest quartile versus lowest quartile). Similarly, the risk among women with a high IL-6 level was 7.5 times higher than among women with a low level.

Adjusting for body mass index, family history of diabetes, smoking, exercise, use of alcohol, and hormone replacement therapy reduced the excess risk related to high IL-6 levels to 2.3 and that for CRP to 4.2.

The researchers concluded that elevated levels of CRP and IL-6 predicted the development of type 2 diabetes and that their data supported a role for inflammation in the development of diabetes, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 286, July 18, 2001, pp. 327-34).

Information provided is courtesy of and compiled by the Academy of Anti-Aging Research.