Tumor necrosis factor - alpha (TNF-a) is a pleiotropic cytokine de­rived from activated macrophages and other cells, and proved to have tremendously diverse functions. Long term experimental diabetes has been found to be associated with enhanced serum TNFa activity.
We attempted to study the serum TNF-a levels in insulin-dependent dia­betes mellitus (IDDM) and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) patients, to find out any pos­sible correlation between TNF-a lev­els and the duration of diabetes, and abnormalities of serum lipid pattern.
This study was performed on non-smoker male subjects comprising
three groups. Group 1 included 33 IDDM patients, group 2 included 30 NIDDM patients and group 3 included 25 healthy control individuals. All pa­tients and control subjects were age matched and selected from the atten­dants of the Outpatient Clinic of Inter­nal Medicine Department, Mansoura University Hospital.
The results of the present study revealed a significant increase of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and tri-glycerides levels in diabetic patients compared to control group, and a sig­nificant increase of triglycerides levels in IDDM compared to NIDDM pa­tients.