Comprehensive Analysis of Risk Factors in Offspring of Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Abstract

Individuals with at least one type 2 diabetic parent have a substantially higher risk of developing insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular diseases. Thus, these individuals can be used not only to identify novel risk markers but also to recognize early alterations in metabolism. Therefore, a study of a cohort of 91 apparently healthy type 2 diabetes offspring was used as a basis for this work which comprised the biostatistical analysis of the given dataset. The participants were invited on two independent test days. Plasma samples were collected before and after an oral glucose tolerance test and after the consumption of a fat-rich breakfast as an oral fat tolerance test. The plasma samples were used for a comprehensive metabolic profiling. The large dataset of fasting and postprandial data was analyzed in this thesis with the help of biostatistical methods. The results were interpreted on the basis of current knowledge and previously published data. This thesis focused on four aspects. The first aim was to confirm previously re-ported association between risk factors and fatty acids, measured in total plasma and major phospholipid species, for healthy subjects, type 2 diabetes or cardiovas-cular diseases patients, in the cohort of healthy offspring from type 2 diabetic pa-tients. Since the role of omega3-fatty acids during the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases remained inconclusive in previous studies, the associa-tion of plasma omega3-fatty acids with insulin resistance parameters was the second as-pect studied here. The fact that the study focused on the postprandial state and in-sulin action, allowed, as the third aspect, to analyze plasma triacylglycerol levels during an oral glucose tolerance test as well as an oral fat tolerance test. The fourth aspect which has been analyzed was the association between omega3-fatty acids and ac-tive plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 as a marker for fibrinolysis and risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.