In this large, nested, case-control study of 1,038 initially healthy women (from the Nurses’ Health Study) who developed type 2 diabetes and 1,136 matched controls, the authors found a strong and inverse relationship between total and high-molecular-weight adiponectin and risk of type 2 diabetes over 12 years of follow-up. Moreover, these associations were independent of body mass index (BMI) and other diabetes risk factors. In contrast, there was a positive association between resistin and type 2 diabetes that was largely explained by BMI. Results of this study also indicated that a higher ratio of high-molecular-weight to total adiponectin was associated with a statistically significant lower risk of type 2 diabetes, even after adjustment for total adiponectin. This suggests that the relative proportion of high-molecular-weight adiponectin plays a key role in type 2 diabetes pathogenesis.
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