The novel myokine myonectin is predominantly expressed in skeletal muscle and is involved in the regulation of metabolic homeostasis. A putative association between myonectin and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has been discussed controversially in current literature. The association between myonectin and T2DM in subjects peripheral artery disease (PAD) has not been investigated at all and is addressed in the present study. We measured myonectin in 224 patients with sonographically proven PAD, of whom 93 had T2DM (41.5%). Myonectin concentrations were significantly decreased in PAD patients with T2DM compared to nondiabetic PAD patients (median 2.00, interquartile range [1.19-3.35] versus 2.63 [1.58-3.88] ng/ml; p=0.030). Analysis of covariance revealed that the association between myonectin and T2DM remained significant after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, LDL-cholesterol, smoking, as well as systolic and diastolic blood pressure (F=5.42; p=0.021). Further, plasma myonectin significantly correlated with HbA1c (spearman’s rho=-0.164; p=0.015), but not with levels of fasting glucose or 2-hour glucose in oral glucose tolerance tests (rho=-0.059; p=0.387 and rho=-0.148; p=0.053, respectively). We conclude that plasma myonectin levels are significantly associated with T2DM in patients with PAD.

Disclosure

A. Muendlein: None. K. Geiger: None. A. Leiherer: None. C. Zach: None. A. Vonbank: None. C.H. Saely: None. C. Heinzle: None. P. Fraunberger: None. H. Drexel: None.

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