When a patient is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the disease has usually already progressed over several years and damage to areas such as blood vessels and eyes has already taken place.

Researchers at Lund University have now identified a promising candidate in blood which indicates who is at risk at an early stage. This test would be highly valuable, as it would enable preventive treatment to be put in place. The findings have been published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

"We have shown that individuals who have above-average levels of a protein called Secreted Frizzled-Related Protein 4(SFRP4) in the blood are five times more likely to develop diabetes in the next few years than those with below-average levels", says Anders Rosengren, a researcher at the Lund University Diabetes Centre (LUDC), who has led the work on the risk marker.

SFRP4 is a hub gene in a T2D-associated gene coexpression module in human islets which reduces glucose-induced insulin secretion through decreased β cell exocytosis. Expression and release of SFRP4 from islets is enhanced by interleukin-1β and SFRP4 is elevated in serum several years before clinical diagnosis of T2D

It is also the first time the link between inflammation in beta cells and diabetes has been proven.

"The theory has been that low-grade chronic inflammation weakens the beta cells so that they are no longer able to secrete sufficient insulin. There are no doubt multiple reasons for the weakness, but the SFRP4 protein is one of them", says Taman Mahdi, main author of the study and one of the researchers in Anders Rosengren's group.

"If we can point to an increased risk of diabetes in a middle-aged individual of normal weight using a simple blood test, up to ten years before the disease develops, this could provide strong motivation to them to improve their lifestyle to reduce the risk", says Anders Rosengren, adding.

Read More