Aberrant peripheral blood CD34+ subsets as a candidate cellular biomarker for type 2 diabetes mellitus

HbA1c and blood glucose (BS) are routinely used in diabetic care, but they do not provide direct information about ongoing cellular pathogenic processes. Previous studies in diabetic animal models identified a CD106 + TNFα + proinsulin + subset within short-term hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell populations, termed diabetes stem cells, that was implicated in diabetic pathology. In this study, we examined peripheral blood from patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) (n = 12) and healthy volunteers (n = 10). The proportion of CD106 + TNFα + proinsulin + CD34 + cells was significantly higher in patients with T2DM than in healthy controls and showed a significant positive correlation with HbA1c levels. These findings suggest that this aberrant peripheral blood CD34 + subset may represent a candidate cellular biomarker associated with T2DM and chronic glycemic status. Further studies in larger cohorts are required to evaluate its clinical utility.