ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate the correlation between serum Galectin-3 levels and the risk of periodontitis in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).MethodsA total of 140 patients with T2DM admitted to the endocrinology department of Weifang People’s Hospital, Affiliated to Weifang Medical College from July 2021 to November 2022 were selected and divided into T2DM without periodontitis group (T2DM group,n=67) and T2DM with periodontitis group (T2DMP group,n=73) according to whether they were combined with periodontitis. In the same period, 65 non-periodontitis volunteers with normal blood glucose were selected as healthy control group (NC group). Blood samples of all subjects were collected, and serum Galectin-3 levels and related laboratory indices were detected and compared among the three groups.ResultsSerum Galectin-3 levels in the NC, T2DM, and T2DMP groups were 3.81 (3.49, 4.15), 4.82 (4.25, 5.26), and 6.83 (5.19, 7.28) ng/mL, respectively. After adjusting for the influence of baseline data by multiple linear regression, serum Galectin-3 levels in the T2DMP and T2DM groups were significantly higher than those in the NC group (allP<0 .05). multiple linear regression analysis showed that serum galectin-3 levels were positively correlated with homeostatic model of the insulin resistance index (β=0.254, 95%CI:0.089-0.419,P=0.003), glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (β=0.397, 95%CI: 0.049-0.745,P=0.026), and clinical attachment loss (β=0.298, 95%CI: 0.024-0.572,P=0.033). After adjusting for the effects of covariates, binary logistic regression showed that serum Galectin-3 levels were significantly associated with the risk of periodontitis in patients with T2DM (OR=2.146, 95%CI: 1.260-3.655,P=0.005). Trend test showed that the risk of periodontitis in patients with T2DM increased with increasing serum Galectin-3 levels (Ptrend=0.011). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of serum Galectin-3 in predicting T2DM periodontitis was 0.861 (95%CI: 0.801-0.920,Z=11.806,P<0 .001).ConclusionSerum Galectin-3 levels were elevated in patients with T2DM and pe-riodontitis and associated with the risk of periodontitis.
