Association between Body Iron Stores and Glucose Homeostasis in the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Study Data

Iron is a transition metal capable of catalyzing redox reactions by generating free radicals. These free radicals generated damage cells by attacking cell membranes, proteins and deoxyribonucleic acids. This damage can occur in the beta cells of the pancreas leading to reduced insulin secretion and increased insulin resistance leading ultimately to abnormal glucose homeostasis and diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to determine if there is any association between body iron stores and glucose homeostasis This study is part of the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study (KIHD), which is an ongoing population based cohort study designed to investigate the risk factors of cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses in the middle age and aging men and women in eastern Finland using the 11year follow-up data. A total of 1774 subjects were assessed for this study, after excluding patients based on exclusion criteria and those with missing variables, we analyzed data from 1555 subjects, the mean age was 62.7 ± 6.5years, while the mean serum ferritin concentration was 97.1 μg/L The study showed that body iron stores was associated with glucose homeostasis as assessed by Homeostasis model assessment using insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and Homeostasis model assessment using beta cell function (HOMA-BcF). There was an inverse relationship between blood donation and HOMA-IR (β = -0.049, P= 0.024), while there was also an inverse relationship though not statistically significant between blood donation ever and HOMA-BcF (β = -0.020, P = 0.4).