the opposite associations of lycopene and body fat mass with humoralimmunity in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a possible role in atherogenesis

this study examined the possible effects of lycopene at physiological dosage and body fat mass on the humoral immune response in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (t2dm). a total of 35 patients with typ2 diabetes mellitus from both sexes aged 54±9 yrs from the iranian diabetes society were introduced into a double blind placebo controlled clinical trial conducted for 2 months. after a 2-week lycopene free diet washout period, patients were allocated to either lycopene supplementation group (10mg/d) (n=16) or placebo age- and sex matched group (n=19) for 8 weeks. patients were instructed to keep their diets and physical activities as unchanged as possible. lycopene supplements increased serum lycopene levels (p and nutrients did not change in either groups, the ratio of total antioxidant capacity to malondialdehyde increased significantly in the lycopene group (p=0.007). there was an inverse correlation between serum levels of lycopene and those of igg (r= -0.338, p=0.008). on the contrary, changes of serum levels of lycopene directly correlated with those of igm (r=0.466, p=0.005). interestingly, changes of the amount of fat mass correlated directly with those of serum igg (r=0.415, p=0.044) but inversely with of serum igm (r= -0.469, p=0.021). while truncal fat might promote adaptive humoral immunity, lycopene probably by inhibiting mda-ldl formation might attenuate t cell dependent adaptive (pro-atherogenic) humoral immune response. these findings may have preventive implications in long term diabetic complications, notably atherogenesis.