A Cross-Sectional Study To Estimate Serum Zinc And Hdl Levels In Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Trace minerals have been a subject of interest for a long time and reports citing as early as 1930s could be seen as a proof of document on the studies being conducted in the trace minerals aspect of biochemistry. There has been a rising interest as to how the trace minerals act or bring about their effect in the human health. Of particular interest among the trace minerals are the zinc and copper. The interaction of these minerals has been noted in many of the enzymatic reactions of our body. These micro minerals or the trace minerals as called are required for the optimum human health mainly because of their involvement in various metabolic reactions. Their interactions range from various catalytic, structural and regulatory functions during which these elements of importance react with the so called macro molecules i.e. enzymes, pro-hormones and biological membranes. The zinc has been found to amplify the effectiveness of insulin in-vitro and also there are many studies suggesting that zinc deficiency may aggravate the insulin resistance in the diabetics and zinc replenition could improve the insulin sensitivity. DM being one of the most important non communicable disease and also as the incidence is seen to be increasing not only in the developed countries but also in the developing countries like India and Africa the effective measures to prevent or minimize the incidence of occurrence or the complications arising out the diabetes have to be considered significantly. As zinc supplementation studies have shown to improve the glycemic control in diabetics the supplementation of zinc could be used for long time to prevent the complications arising out of the uncontrolled blood glucose levels over prolonged periods. Few other zinc supplementation studies have also shown to reduce the HDL-cholesterol concentrations in the diabetic patients. Thus we estimated serum zinc and HDL levels in patients of type 2 DM and non-diabetic subjects and correlate levels of zinc & HDL in cases without any zinc supplementation to see the relation of zinc and HDL-cholesterol. Materials and methods: All cases of type 2 diabetes mellitus from 35 to 50 years admitted or attending Medicine unit of KLES Dr. Prabhakar Kore Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Belgaum. Based on calculations from the power of the previous study sample size were estimated 35 cases of type 2 diabetes mellitus. 35 controls were also selected depending on the age and sex match criteria. 10 ml of blood was collected from the patients and controls under aseptic precautionary measures using disposable syringe in heparinized tubes, centrifuged, serum separated and estimated for HDL-cholesterol and kept at -200C for the estimation of serum zinc which was analyzed within 30 days from the sample collection. Methods of assay Serum Zinc – by flame Atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). HDL – Phosphotungstate/Magnesium precipitation method. Results The mean serum value of zinc and HDL-c in cases was 43.03±12.11µg/dl and 29.26 ± 2.42 mg/dl. Statistical analysis carried out by using unpaired student’s t – test showed significantly reduced serum zinc and HDL-c in cases when compared to controls (p-value<0.001). The mean serum values of zinc and HDL-c in controls was 100.43±11.02 µg/dl and 40.11±4.15 mg/dl. There was significant decrease in the level of serum zinc in cases when compared to controls. Co-relation was done using Karl Pearson’s co-relation coefficient method between the levels of zinc and HDL-c in the cases showed positive co-relation but it is not statistically significant. Interpretation & Conclusion: Our study revealed that there was positive co-relation between the serum levels of zinc HDL-cholesterol concentrations. However, the statistical co-relation was not evidently significant. Thus supplementation of zinc supplements to the individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus without proper blood glucose regulation could prove to be beneficial in regulating the blood glucose levels and thus prevent the complications arising out of chronic conditions in diabetes. Thus we would like to conclude that the study has shown decreased levels of zinc in diabetic cases, supplementation of which may be helpful & the effect of this supplementation on HDL need to be explored.