Investigating Serum Dairy Fatty Acid Biomarkers and their Association with Type 2 Diabetes and its Underlying Disorders

Growing evidence suggests that dairy intake is inversely associated with type 2 diabetes risk, however current literature is inconclusive and few studies have evaluated dairy’s effects on the underlying disorders of the disease. This thesis aimed to investigate the relationship between the dairy specific serum fatty acid biomarkers pentadecanoic acid (15:0) and trans-palmitoleic acid (trans 16:1n-7) with incident type 2 diabetes, as well as associations with insulin sensitivity, beta-cell function, and markers of chronic systemic inflammation in the large multi-ethnic Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study (IRAS). This study found that 15:0, a marker of dairy intake in the IRAS cohort, was inversely associated with incident diabetes after 5 years; positively associated with insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function; and negatively associated with plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, independent of demographic, lifestyle, and dietary variables. This study extends current literature pointing to a possible protective role of dairy intake on cardiometabolic risk.