Relationship Between Plasma Uridine and Insulin Resistance in Patients with Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Objective: It has been demonstrated that uridine infusion induces insulin resistance in rats. Furthermore, it was recently reported that plasma uridine is correlated with homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-R) in hypertensive patients. Therefore, we investigated whether plasma uridine was correlated with HOMA-R in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Subjects and Methods: The subjects were 23 male patients with NIDDM (average age 63 years) and 18 healthy males (average age 60 years). Blood samples were drawn after an overnight fast, plasma uridine was then measured using high-performance liquid chromatography. Results: The average plasma uridine concentration in patients with NIDDM was higher than that in healthy subjects (P < 0.05). Furthermore, plasma uridine values were positively correlated with HOMA-R (r = 0.48, P < 0.05), serum insulin (r = 0.46, P < 0.05), and serum C-peptide radioimmunoreactivity (CPR) (r = 0.44, P < 0.05) values, whereas they were not significantly correlated with fasting blood glucose or hemoglobin A1c values. Conclusion: We found a positive relationship between plasma uridine value and HOMA-R, serum insulin, and CPR, suggesting that plasma uridine is a marker of insulin resistance in patients with NIDDM.

Keywords:

• Uridine
• diabetes mellitus
• insulin resistance

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Promotion of Technological Seeds in Advanced Medicine, Hyogo College of Medicine.