Chinese Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism 2017;33(5):449-452

doi:10.3760/cma.j.issn.1000-6699.2017.05.019

Implication of proinsulin to insulin ratio in the basic and clinical research of diabetes

Junling LIU ; Rui WEI ; Tianpei HONG

Keywords

Diabetes mellitus; type 2; Pancreatic β-cells; Prohormone convertase; Proinsulin

Country

China

Language

Chinese

Abstract

Proinsulin is the precursor of mature insulin.Proinsulin to insulin ratio reflects the degree of pancreatic β-cell dysfunction and the progression of type 2 diabetes, and may predict the risk of diabetes development.Some variants in susceptibility genes of diabetes are associated with the elevation of proinsulin to insulin ratio.Moreover, several antidiabetic drugs are able to decrease the proinsulin to insulin ratio in patients with type 2 diabetes.Therefore, the proinsulin to insulin ratio may act as a simple and useful indicator in the etiological study, risk prediction, disease progression and therapeutical evaluation in type 2 diabetes.