Sex differences in interleukin‐6 stress responses in people with Type 2 diabetes

Abstract

People with Type 2 diabetes (T2D) show dysregulated inflammatory responses to acute stress, but the effect of sex on inflammatory responses in T2D remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in interleukin (IL)‐6 stress responses between older men and women with T2D. One hundred and twenty‐one people (76 men; mean age = 64.09, SD = 7.35, 45 women; mean age = 63.20, SD = 6.70) with doctor‐verified T2D took part in this laboratory‐based stress testing study. Participants carried out acute mental stress tasks, and blood was sampled at baseline, immediately poststress, 45 min poststress, and 75 min poststress to detect plasma IL‐6 concentrations. IL‐6 change scores were computed as the difference between the baseline measurement and the three time points poststress. Main effects and interactions were tested using mixed model analysis of covariance. We found a significant main effect of time on IL‐6 levels, and a significant Sex × Time interaction. In adjusted analyses including the three change scores and all the covariates, the significant Sex × Time interaction was maintained; IL‐6 responses were greater in women at 45 and 75 min poststress compared with men, adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking, household income, glycated hemoglobin, oral antidiabetic medication, insulin/other injectable antidiabetic medication, depressive symptoms, and time of day of testing. Different inflammatory stress response pathways are present in men and women with T2D, with women producing larger IL‐6 increases. The long‐term implications of these differences need to be elucidated in future studies.

Mental Stress, Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms and Interleuken-6 Level among Healthcare Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…23,24 Conversely, further studies demonstrated greater IL-6 stress responses in women. 25,26 Furthermore, our study denoted that high IL-6 levels was significantly associated with increased depression, anxiety, and stress scores, with stress being the most common predictor of IL-6 levels among HCWs and among all participants including controls. Our results are consistent with those of former studies that investigated the association between IL-6 and mental health problems, particularly among HCWs.…”

Estimation of Interleukin-4 (IL-4) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6) Levels in Sera From Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

“…Hence, a conclusive anti-inflammatory role for IL-4 is not forthcoming. To the best of our knowledge, the lack previous studies in people with T2DM on the basis of gender related to IL-4 and IL-6 levels or prediabetes does not permit direct comparisons with similar samples 39 .…”

Diabetes-related distress and daily cortisol output in people with Type 2 diabetes

“…The overall aim of the study was to investigate associations between stress-related biology and cardiovascular risk [9]. Secondary goals included assessing the impact of demographic characteristics [18], health behaviours [19,20] and psychosocial factors [21][22][23][24] on stress-related biology in people with Type 2 diabetes. The participants without diabetes were recruited as a sub-sample of the Whitehall II cohort in 2006-2008 [25].…”