Background@#It is well known that high
serum ferritin, a marker of
iron storage, predicts incident
type 2 diabetes. Limited information is available on the
association between
transferrin, another marker of
iron metabolism, and
type 2 diabetes. Thus, we investigated the
association between
transferrin and incident
type 2 diabetes. @*
Methods@#Total 31,717 participants (mean age, 40.4±7.2 years) in a
health screening program in 2005 were assessed via
cross-sectional analysis. We included 30,699 subjects
who underwent medical check-up in 2005 and 2009 and did not have
type 2 diabetes at baseline in this retrospective longitudinal
analysis. @*Results@#The
serum transferrin level was higher in the
type 2 diabetes group than in the non-
type 2 diabetes group (58.32±7.74 μmol/L vs. 56.17±7.96 μmol/L, P<0.001).
Transferrin correlated with
fasting serum glucose and
glycosylated hemoglobin in the correlational
analysis (r=0.062, P<0.001 and r=0.077, P<0.001, respectively) after full
adjustment for covariates.
Transferrin was more closely related to
homeostasis model assessment of
insulin resistance than to
homeostasis model assessment of β
cell function (r=0.042, P<0.001 and r=–0.019, P=0.004, respectively) after full
adjustment.
Transferrin predicted incident
type 2 diabetes in non-type 2 diabetic subjects in a multivariate
linear regression analysis; the
odds ratio (95%
confidence interval [CI]) of the 3rd tertile compared to that in the 1st tertile of
transferrin for incident diabetes was 1.319 (95% CI, 1.082 to 1.607) after full
adjustment (P=0.006). @*Conclusion@#
Transferrin is positively associated with incident
type 2 diabetes in
Koreans.