Associations between blood markers of glucose metabolism and characteristics of circulating lymphocytes

Abstract

Aims

The pathophysiology of diabetes is not fully understood; recent research indicates close relations with immunological alterations. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the associations between markers of glucose metabolism and characteristics of blood lymphocytes in a population-based cohort.

Methods

The analysis was based on data from 219 non-diabetic participants of the MEGA study in Augsburg, Germany, who were recruited between 2018 and 2021. The majority of participants were examined two different times with a time lag of 9 months. Fasting venous blood samples were taken and oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) were performed at both visits. Immune cells were analyzed from fresh blood using flow cytometry. The associations between fasting blood glucose levels, glucose levels at 2 h after oral glucose bolus and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) concentrations and the quantity of different lymphocyte subsets were analyzed using linear mixed regression models with random intercept. P values were FDR-adjusted.

Results

HbA1c was negatively associated with the marginal zone B cells (IgD + CD27+ B cells). Fasting glucose was positively associated with natural killer (NK) cells and 2-h OGTT glucose was positively associated with NKT cells. Finally, HbA1c showed significantly negative associations with the CD57-PD1-NKT cell subset.

Conclusion

Markers of glucose metabolism showed significant associations with B cell, NK cell and NKT cell subsets, which clearly indicates a relation between glucose metabolism and the adaptive immune system.