Correlation between serum interleukin-6 level and type 1 diabetes mellitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis

• Published in: Cytokine (Philadelphia, Pa.) Vol. 94; pp. 14 - 20
• Main Authors: Chen, Yin-Ling, Qiao, Yong-Chao, Pan, Yan-Hong, Xu, Yan, Huang, Yong-Cheng, Wang, Yin-Hui, Geng, Li-Jun, Zhao, Hai-Lu, Zhang, Xiao-Xi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2017
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age Factors; Case-Control Studies; Child; Child, Preschool; Cytokines; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 - ethnology; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 - immunology; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 - physiopathology; Female; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Interleukin-6; Interleukin-6 - blood; Male; Meta-analysis; Statistics as Topic; Type 1 diabetes mellitus; Young Adult; T1DM; NOS; Cytokines; IL-6; Type 1 diabetes mellitus; Interleukin-6; Meta-analysis
• ISSN: 1043-4666; 1096-0023
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cyto.2017.01.002

•The serum IL-6 level had increased in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus.•The age, disease duration, and ethnic of patients had no effects on IL-6 level.•IL-6 may be a key inflammatory factor for T1DM pathogenesis. This report aimed to explore the association between the change of circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6) in patients and the development of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Four databases (PubMed, CNKI, WanFang and Civip) were used to search and list all clinical case-control studies about serum IL-6 level in T1DM patients between Jan 1, 2000 and Aug 31, 2016. A total of 20 case-control studies with 1238 T1DM patients and 742 healthy controls were included in this study. Compared to healthy controls, the serum content of IL-6 in patients with T1DM was significantly greater (overall: SMD, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.93; p<0.001), and notably increased in all subgroup with different age, ethnic and disease duration (all p<0.001). Furthermore, the analysis in subgroup exhibited that serum levels of IL-6 in the age greater than 20-year old (SMD, 1.64; 95% CI, 0.57–2.71; p<0.001), the diseased duration among 0–10years (SMD, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.42–3.44; p<0.001) and the sorted American group (SMD, 1.68; 95% CI, 0.85–2.51; p<0.001) were higher than those in control groups. Patients with T1DM were found to be linked to elevated level of serum IL-6, which the age, ethnic and disease durations in T1DM patients had no effect on the serum IL-6 levels for promoting diabetes mellitus.