Higher baseline inflammatory marker levels predict 10-year cognitive decline in type 2 diabetes
The study included 1,066 adults aged 60 to 75 years with type 2 diabetes.
The researchers measured C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, tumour necrosis factor-alpha and fibrinogen.
Data indicated that higher interleukin-6 was associated with a greater decline in tests of executive function and abstract reasoning.
According to a study, higher
baseline levels of systemic inflammatory markers, including plasma interleukin-6
and fibrinogen, were associated with a greater cognitive decline for adults
with type 2 diabetes for 10 years. "At least some of this association
appeared to be specific to certain cognitive domains and to be independent of
vascular and diabetes-related risk factors," Anniek J Sluiman, PhD, a
senior population health researcher at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and
colleagues wrote in Diabetologia.
For the prospective Edinburgh type 2 diabetes study, Sluiman and colleagues sought to assess the longitudinal association of circulating markers of systemic inflammation with subsequent long-term cognitive change in older people with type 2 diabetes.
The study
included 1,066 adults aged 60 to 75 years with type 2 diabetes. At baseline,
the researchers measured Researchers, interleukin-6, tumour necrosis
factor-alpha and fibrinogen, and performed neuropsychological testing on major
cognitive domains. They repeated cognitive testing at 10 years for 581
participants and determined a general cognitive ability score via the battery
of seven individual cognitive tests using principal component analysis.
After adjusting for age, sex and baseline general cognitive ability,
researchers observed an association between higher baseline levels of
fibrinogen and interleukin-6, a greater decline in general cognitive ability.
However, these associations no longer proved statistically significant after
adjustment for baseline vascular and diabetes-related covariables.
In
addition, data indicated that higher interleukin-6 was associated with a
greater decline in tests of executive function and abstract reasoning, whereas
raised levels of fibrinogen and C-reactive protein were associated with a
greater decline in processing speed. The statistical significance remained
after adjustment for diabetes- and vascular-related risk factors, according to
the researchers.
"Our results go some way to addressing the previous paucity of evidence of
a prospective association between markers of systemic inflammation and
cognitive decline in people with type 2 diabetes," researchers wrote.
"As this is primarily an exploratory observational study, clinical
implications are limited and indirect," they added.