BACKGROUND:

Elevated fasting intact proinsulin is a biomarker of late-stage ß-cell-dysfunction associated with clinically relevant insulin resistance. In this pilot investigation, we explored the potential value of measuring intact proinsulin as a functional predictor of ß-cell exhaustion during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT).

METHODS:

The study was performed with 31 participants, 11 of whom were healthy subjects (7 female, age: 59 ± 20 years), 10 had impaired glucose tolerance (IGT, 6 female, 62 ± 10 years), and 10 had known type 2 diabetes (T2DM, 5 female, 53 ± 11 years, HbA1c: 7.0 ± 0.6%, disease duration: 8 ± 5 years). During OGTT, blood was drawn after 0 hours, 1 hour, and 2 hours for determination of glucose and intact proinsulin. Five years later, patients were again contacted to assess their diabetes status and the association to the previous OGTT results was analyzed.

RESULTS:

The OGTT (0 hours/1 hour/2 hours) results were as follows: healthy subjects: glucose: 94 ± 8 mg/dL/140 ± 29 mg/dL/90 ± 24 mg/dL, intact proinsulin: 3 ± 2 pmol/L/10 ± 7 pmol/L/10 ± 5 pmol/L); IGT: glucose: 102 ± 9 mg/dL/158 ± 57 mg/dL/149 ± 34 mg/dL, intact proinsulin: 7 ± 4 pmol/L/23 ± 8 pmol/L/28 ± 6 pmol/L; T2DM: glucose: 121 ± 20 mg/dL/230 ± 51 mg/dL/213 ± 34 mg/dL; intact proinsulin: 7 ± 7 pmol/L/26 ± 9 pmol/L/27 ± 10 pmol/L). Five years later, all of the IGT and 2 of the healthy subjects had developed T2DM and one had devloped IGT. All of them had elevated 2-hour proinsulin values in the initial OGTT, while patients with normal intact proinsulin results did not develop diabetes.

CONCLUSIONS:

Elevated 2-hour intact proinsulin levels during OGTT were predictive for later type 2 diabetes development. Further studies need to confirm our findings in larger populations.