Iron store marker tracks insulin resistance in metabolic syndrome
Ferritin rose in step with insulin resistance in patients, but not in healthy volunteers.
Ferritin is usually read as a gauge of the body's iron stores, yet it also climbs with low-level inflammation. Might it say something about blood sugar control?
Researchers writing in The Ulutas Medical Journal measured ferritin, glucose, insulin and HOMA-IR, a standard index of insulin resistance, in 98 people with metabolic syndrome and 100 healthy volunteers.
Patients had about twice as much ferritin on average, and far higher insulin resistance. Within the patient group, the higher the ferritin, the stronger the resistance, a fairly tight link (r = 0.69). Among volunteers, no such pattern emerged.
The authors suggest the connection shows up only when ferritin runs high, and call for molecular work to explain it.
Caveat: the study compares groups at a single point in time, so the study cannot tell whether ferritin drives insulin resistance or simply travels with it.
Source: Ugur Yurekli et al. The Relationship between Serum Ferritin Level and Insulin Resistance in Metabolic Syndrome. Ulutas Med J 2023. doi:10.5455/umj.20230119123818.
Image: Figure 2 of the article, CC BY-NC 4.0.
