Fetuin A: A Newer Marker for Pre Diabetes

Objective: To evaluate the role of Fetuin A levels in predicting glycemic outcome in individuals with
impaired fasting glucose.
Research Design and Methods: A total of 742 young individuals were recruited for the study out of
which 177 had impaired fasting glucose, 468 had normoglycemia and 97 individuals with diabetes.
These individuals were offsprings of diabetics (either mother or father or both) and were siblings
amongst themselves belonging to age group of 18-35 years. Various biochemical investigations such
as fasting plasma glucose, glycosylated Hb, serum insulin, C-peptide and Fetuin A were carried out.
People with impaired fasting glucose were followed and analyzed according to glycemic outcome and
quartile of Fetuin A level.
Results: A total of 66 individuals with prediabetes reverted back to normal, 28 progressed to diabetes
and 83 remained with prediabetes over a mean±S.D follow up of 24±4.1 months. People in the
highest quartile of fetuin A had the highest Insulin, Insulin Resistance, Increased loss of beta cell
activity, decreased sensitivity to insulin and a higher rate of progression to diabetes (relative risk
11.96, 95% CI 5.9 to 24.01, p<0.001) and a significantly lower rate of reversion to normoglycemia
(relative risk 5.62, 95% CI 3.16 to 9.9, p<0.001) than those in other Fetuin A quartiles.
fetuin A correlated positively with Insulin (r= +0.289, p<0.001), C-peptide (r=+ 0.177, p<0.001), %β
cell function(r= -0.368, p<0.001), insulin resistance (r= +0.436, p<0.001) and glycosylated Hb
(r=+0.958, p<0.05) and negatively with % sensitivity to insulin( r= -0.287, p<0.001). Cox regression
analysis showed that baseline fetuin A, insulin levels and fasting glucose levels were predictive of
reversion to normoglycemia.
Conclusions: Increased fetuin A levels had an adverse impact on glycemic outcomes thus
suggesting that fasting plasma glucose and Fetuin A can be used as a tool to determine the
susceptibility of an individual to develop pre-diabetes and thus diabetes mellitus.