WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

*Noor Faisal Sultan, Wifaq Mahmood Alwatar and Munib Ahmed AlZubaidi

ABSTRACT

Background: Zinc transporter 8 (ZnT8) is a protein highly specific to pancreatic insulin-producing beta cells, it is vital for the biosynthesis and secretion of insulin. ZnT8 autoantibodies (ZnT8A) were detected at the onset of diabetes that lead the researchers to study their role in diagnosis of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Therefore, we aim to investigate the serum level of ZnT8A and its association with the pathogenesis of T1DM among pediatric group. Method: A case-control study that recruited sixty-eight diabetes patients visiting Pediatric Teaching Hospital, medical city, Baghdad (thirty-four patients diagnosed as T1DM for less than four years regarded as group A and thirty-four patients diagnosed as T1DM for more than four years regarded as group B) and twenty healthy control group that was taken from patients first degree relatives. A sandwich enzyme – linked immunosorbent assay (Elisa) was used to analyse the serum level of ZnT8A which was separated from patients’ blood samples. Results: The mean age of T1DM patients (N = 68) was 9.43 ± 3.1 years and 10 ± 3 years for 20 healthy controls.34 patients in A group were diagnosed less than 4 years, while the other 34 were diagnosed more than 4 years (group B). Twenty-three of group A (67.6%) tested positive for ZnT8A compared to 5 (14.7%) and 2 (10%) patients tested positive ZnT8A for group B and controls respectively. When ZnT8A-positive and -negative patients within group A and B were compared, no significant differences were detected in relation to gender, age of incidence, time of diagnosis or HbA1C concentration. Conclusions: ZnT8A play an important role in the pathogenesis of T1DM and may prove to be a predicting marker for the onset of T1DM.