Background: Eating disorders (EDs) can cause significant disturbance of the menstrual cycle and impaired female fertility. The comorbidity of EDs in T1DM leads to poorer glycemic control and subsequently more complications. Nesfatin-1 performs an important role in controlling food intake, gastrointestinal motility, glucose homeostasis, and reproductive functions. We aimed in the current research to explore the serum nesfatin-1 levels in female patients with diabetes, and also to assess the influence of disordered eating on its levels, metabolic, and reproduction features.
Materials and Methods: We conducted a case-control study on 70 participants (30 patients with DM and 40 control group). We selected 20 female patients with T1DM and 10 patients with T2DM. Both groups suffer from EDs and reproductive dysfunctions. Serum nesfatin-1 levels were measured.
Results: Women with DM had significantly lower values of Serum nesfatin-1 (ng/mL) (0.70±0.2) compared to controls (2.21±0.391), P < 0.001. Interestingly, there was a non-significant difference between female patients with T1DM (0.83±0.33) from other group T2DM (0.63±0.08) regards serum nesfatin-1, p =0,332. Duration of diabetes, HbA1c, estradiol, and LH scores were independently associated with serum nesfatin-1. Remarkably, we detected that the sensitivity and specificity of serum nesfatin-1 values for distinguishing EDs from the other group among female patients with DM were 96.3% and 99%, respectively.
Conclusion: Nesfatin-1 levels were found to be significantly lower in female patients with DM compared to the control group and negatively correlated with cardiometabolic risk factors as well as EDs pattern and reproductive dysfunction parameters.