ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: The incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM I) is rising. Newly discovered peptides: adropin, afamin and neudesin may play a key role in the diagnostic process in the future. Most studies assessing the relationship of those peptides provide data obtained from studies conducted on animals, adults with type DM II and women with gestational DM. There are only few studies concerning these relationships in children.

Aim of the Study: The aim of the study was to evaluate the concentration of adropin, afamin and neudensin in blood serum of children with DM I and the control group, taking into consideration the duration of the disease.

Materials and Methods: The study population consisted of 138 patients aged 5-18 years (male: 40.58%). The examination was performed in the group of children with diabetes mellitus type I (n=68), and the control group (n=70). The diabetic group was divided into 4 subgroups: (I) newly diagnosed patients, (II) duration no longer than 5 years, (III) 5 to 10 years and (IV) > 10 years. Serum concentrations of all peptides were assessed and compared. P- value of 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: Mean levels of adropin and afamin were statistically higher in subgroup III than in I: adropin ( I 5978.18 vs III 10457.15 P=0.023), afamin (74.09 vs 95.72 P=0.037). Comparing subgroup I and IV there was the difference in adropin (5978.18 vs 9559.7 P=0.04). There was higher level of afamin in the subgroup II comparing to III (75.74 vs 95.72 P=0.018). There were statistically significant differences in peptides mentioned below and the control group: adropin, afamin and neudensin in the subgroup I, afamin and neudensin in subgroup II, adropin and afamin in subgroup III and afamin and neudensin in subgroup IV. The differences such as statistically significant increased mean level of adropin and afamin and stable mean level of neudensin correlated to longer duration of the disease were observed.

Conclusion: Our study shows that the concentration of adropin, afamin and neudesin may be connected with the duration of DM I and may change during the course of the disorder. That knowledge could be employed in the future to use these peptides as biomarkers of this disease. However further studies are needed.