Zakia AZ Mohamed, Sabah E Abd-Elraheem, Eslam MA El- Nahrery, Seham Sabry, Maha Salah Eldin Mohamed
This study was conducted to determine expression of TLR2 in peripheral blood monocytes and the proinflammatory cytokine IL18 in type 2 obese diabetic patients. The study consisted of 40 patients divided to 15 obese non-diabetic, 15 obese diabetic and 10 normal control. All groups were subjected to clinical and laboratory investigations including lipid profile, fasting blood glucose, HbA1C, serum insulin, HOMA-IR, S.IL 18 and flow cytometric analysis of TLR2 on CD14+ monocytes expression. IL-18 levels were significantly higher in obese non-diabetic and obese diabetic when compared to normal control subjects (p<0.05), while there was no significant difference between non-diabetic obese subjects and diabetic obese subjects regarding IL-18 levels and there was a highly significant increase in TLR2 MFI in obese non-diabetic, obese diabetic when compared to controls, also levels of TLR2 MFI were significantly higher in obese diabetic compared to obese non-diabetic (p<0.001). There was a significant increase in HOMA-IR in obese non-diabetic, obese diabetic when compared to controls (p<0.05) (P<0.001) respectively. Also levels of HOMA-IR were significantly higher in obese diabetic compared to obese non-diabetic (p<0.001). There was a significant increase in insulin levels in obese non-diabetic, obese diabetic when compared to controls (p<0.05), levels of insulin were significantly higher in obese non-diabetic compared to obese diabetic (p<0.05).There was a significant positive correlation between TLR2 MFI and each of insulin, IL18 and BMI in obese non-diabetic as well as obese diabetic patients. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the expression of TLR2 on CD14+ monocytes was up regulated in obese non-diabetic and obese diabetic patients and was associated with inflammatory response as assessed by increased serum levels of IL-18.