Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Dec 15, 2016; 7(20): 615-620
Published online Dec 15, 2016. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v7.i20.615
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor plasma levels and premature cognitive impairment/dementia in type 2 diabetes
Blanca Murillo Ortíz, Joel Ramírez Emiliano, Edna Ramos-Rodríguez, Sandra Martínez-Garza, Hilda Macías-Cervantes, Sergio Solorio-Meza, Texar Alfonso Pereyra-Nobara
Blanca Murillo Ortíz, Edna Ramos-Rodríguez, Sandra Martínez-Garza, Hilda Macías-Cervantes, Sergio Solorio-Meza, Texar Alfonso Pereyra-Nobara, Unidad de Investigación en Epidemiología Clínica, Unidad Médica de Alta Especialidad No. 1 Bajio, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Guanajuato 37320, Mexico
Joel Ramírez Emiliano, Departamento de Ciencias Médicas, División Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Guanajuato, Guanajuato 37320, Mexico
Author contributions: All the authors contributed to the paper.
Institutional review board statement: This protocol was approved by the local bioethics committee (R-2014-1001-88).
Informed consent statement: The informed consent was obtained from each volunteer.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this manuscript.
Data sharing statement: No data were created no data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Blanca Murillo Ortíz, PhD, Unidad de Investigación en Epidemiología Clínica, Unidad Médica de Alta Especialidad No. 1 Bajio, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, López Mateos Esquina Insurgentes s/n Colonia Los Paraisos, León, Guanajuato 37320, Mexico. bomo907@hotmail.com
Telephone: +52-477-7183039 Fax: +52-477-7183039
Received: June 21, 2016
Peer-review started: June 24, 2016
First decision: August 11, 2016
Revised: August 27, 2016
Accepted: October 1, 2016
Article in press: October 9, 2016
Published online: December 15, 2016
Processing time: 171 Days and 5.2 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To assess the relationship of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) with cognitive impairment in patients with type 2 diabetes.

METHODS

The study included 40 patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2), 37 patients with chronic kidney disease in hem dialysis hemodialysis therapy (HD) and 40 healthy subjects. BDNF in serum was quantified by ELISA. The Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination was used to evaluate cognitive impairment.

RESULTS

The patients with DM2 and the patients in HD were categorized into two groups, with cognitive impairment and without cognitive impairment. The levels of BDNF showed significant differences between patients with DM2 (43.78 ± 9.05 vs 31.55 ± 10.24, P = 0.005). There were no differences between patients in HD (11.39 ± 8.87 vs 11.11 ± 10.64 P = 0.77); interestingly, ferritin levels were higher in patients with cognitive impairment (1564 ± 1335 vs 664 ± 484 P = 0.001). The comparison of BDNF values, using a Kruskal Wallis test, between patients with DM2, in HD and healthy controls showed statistical differences (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Low levels of BDNF are associated with cognitive impairment in patients with DM2. The decrease of BDNF occurs early and progressively in patients in HD.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus type 2; Hemodialysis; Brain-derived neurotrophic factor; Folstein mini-mental; Premature cognitive impairment

Core tip: The objective was to compare serum levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) between patients with and without cognitive impairment, patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2) and chronic kidney disease patients on hemodialysis, in order to increase our knowledge on the possible role of BDNF in early cognitive impairment in DM2. We found differences in serum BDNF levels; they were lowest in patients with DM2 with cognitive impairment. In patients on hemodialysis, serum BDNF levels were lower than in patients with DM2 and healthy controls and ferritin levels were higher in patients with cognitive impairment.