New PhD thesis from DCE investigates the prevalence of type 2 diabetes complications and the association between selected complications and mannose-binding lectin.

2020.06.24 | Tina Christensen

Anne Gedebjerg, who defended her PhD thesis online today, has conducted three studies on the complications in type 2 diabetes patients and the association between mannose-binding lectin (MBL) and the risk of cardiovascular events, mortality, and infections.

She found that 35% of individuals with recently diagnosed type 2 diabetes experienced complications. Of these, 12% had microvascular complications only, 17% had macrovascular complications only, and 6% had both micro- and macrovascular complications.

Looking at the association between MBL and risk of cardiovascular events and mortality, Anne and colleagues found that both serum MBL and MBL expression genotype showed a U-shaped association with risk of cardiovascular event in individuals with type 2 diabetes. The results indicate that serum MBL is directly involved in the development of cardiovascular disease in type 2 diabetes. Serum MBL levels showed a similar but attenuated association with all-cause mortality, while MBL expression genotype was not associated with all-cause mortality.

As for MBL and risk of infections in type 2 diabetes patients, they found that patients with low serum MBL levels (<100 µg/L vs. 100–1000 µg/L)) had only a weak increased risk of future hospital-treated bacterial infections. Low MBL expression genotype showed similar, but weaker, associations with increased risk of hospital-treated bacterial infections. A similar, but weaker, association was found between MBL and community-based antimicrobial prescriptions in individuals with type 2 diabetes. In conclusion, they found no evidence that low MBL was a strong risk factor for developing infectious disease

The studies were based on the DD2 cohort managed by the Danish Centre for Strategic Research in Type 2 Diabetes.