Serum markers of Iron metabolism in individuals with diabetes mellitus from a population with high prevalence of anaemia

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus cause rise in the levels of cytokines which increases hepcidin secretion from liver. Hepcidin inhibits the release of iron from macrophages of reticuloendothelial cells and decreases the transport of iron from intestinal mucosa to blood. Anaemia of chronic inflammation cause rise in cytokines which leads to retention of iron at the stores as ferritin and fall in serum iron. Aim: The present study was conducted to estimate serum markers of iron metabolism, serum iron, ferritin and haemoglobin and hsCRP from individuals with diabetes mellitus and in the control groups and to make comparison of these parameters. Materials and methods: A total of 34 subjects were enrolled aged between 25 -50 years 17 subjects with diabetes mellitus and 17 age matched controls. Fasting blood samples were taken Hb, serum glucose; iron ferritn and hsCRP were estimated. Results: We have observed that mean haemoglobin in both the groups were in the anemic level (<11g/dl) and there was no significant variation in haemoglobin levels in these groups. But there was a significant increase of serum ferritin in individuals with diabetes mellitus when compared with the control groups. Conclusion: The alteration in iron metabolism in diabetes was found to be mediated by cytokines which increase the hepatic synthesis of hepcidin, which causes relative rise in ferritin in these cells the mild increase in CRP (hsCRP) is also explained by increase in cytokines.