Pregnancy-Associated Plasma Protein-A Levels Are Related to Glycemic Control but Not to Lipid Profile or Hemostatic Parameters in Type 2 Diabetes

P regnancy-associated plasma pro-tein-A (PAPP-A) is a zinc-bindingmatrix metalloproteinase that regu-lates extracellular matrix remodeling. PAPP-A degrades IGFBP-4, increasing levels of local IGF-1 in response to injury, and could be involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis (1 – 6). Inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor (TNF)- and interleukin (IL)-1, implicated in in-sulin resistance (7), are potent stimulators of PAPP-A (8,9). The association between PAPP-A levels and metabolic parameters such as cholesterol and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) is controver-sial (2,10,11). We aimed to study the re-lationship between PAPP-A, glycemic control and other metabolic and hemo-static parameters, inflammatory cyto-kines, and ankle-brachial pressure index (ABI) in diabetic patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND