Investigating the association between interleukin 18 and type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Iraqi population

Abstract Extensive research has been conducted for over a decade on the association between obesity, inflammation, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The primary objective of this study is to investigate the correlation between levels of IL-18 and T2DM among different age groups. Ninety blood samples were collected from three groups: old diabetic patients, young diabetic patients and healthy control group. Thirteen blood samples for each group and both sexes had been enrolled in this research. The HbA1c test and interleukin 18 ELISA test were done for all these samples. The results were statistically analyzed by using: One-way ANOVA, Duncan multiple range comparison, chi-square, Pearson correlation test and ROC test. There were significant differences between patients and healthy groups regarding HbA1c and no significant differences between groups in IL18. The results of the ROC test confirmed that there wasn’t any significant relationship between IL18 and T2DM. In conclusion, our study indicates that the impact of IL-18 in the evolution of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is not significant and it may not serve as a reliable predictor of T2DM.