Salivary amylase and adiponectin as potential non-invasive markers of glycaemic control in Malaysian type 2 diabetes mellitus participants

Introduction: Serum amylase and adiponectin levels have shown promise as markers of cardio-metabolic diseases. However, the levels of these markers in saliva and their association with glycaemic management in diabetes mellitus (DM) are not well documented. Therefore, we investigated the correlation of salivary amylase and adiponectin concentrations with measures of glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes (T2DM), mellitus participants. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 80 T2DM participants of Indian and Malay ethnicity. Saliva was collected, and salivary amylase and adiponectin concentrations were analysed. Recent fasting blood sugar and HbA1c of the participants was obtained form their medical records. The correlations of salivary amylase and adiponectin with fasting blood sugar and HbA1c were calculated using Spearman’s correlation. Results: There was a weak positive correlation between salivary adiponectin and HbA1c (rho = 0.221, p = 0.051). The salivary adiponectin levels was significnalty lower among participants with good glycaemic control (HbA1c ≤ 7.0%) compared to those with poor glycaemic control (HbA1c > 7.0%,) (1.13 (1.75) vs. 2.34 (3.54) ng/ml, p = 0.039). Conclusion: Salivary adiponectin weakly correlated with HbA1c, while salivary amylase showed no correlation with the glycaemic parameters studied. Therefore, salivary adiponectin may warrant further investigation as a potential non-invasive biomarker of T2DM.