UNLABELLED: The aim of our study was to investigate if there is any significant relationship between adrenal steroid hormone dehydroepiandrosterone-sulphate (DHEAS) and insulin resistance, as there are some previous signs in the literature suggesting such relationship but the results are not conclusive.

METHODS: In our study participated 50 obese women and 20 obese men both with BMI over 27 kg/m2. Insulin resistance was calculated using HOMA insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) that is based on fasting glycaemia and basal insulin levels.

RESULTS: The negative correlation between DHEAS and HOMA-IR was found in the whole group of obese women but close behind statistical significance (r = -0.27, p = 0.055). But the group of obese women does not seem to be homogenous in correlation between DHEAS and insulin resistance. The significant negative correlation between DHEAS and insulin resistance was found in the subgroup (n = 21) of obese type 2 diabetic women (r = -0.55, p = 0.01) but no correlation was found in the subgroup (n = 29) of obese non-diabetic women (r = -0.06, p = 0.77). The relationship between DHEAS and glycaemia homeostasis was also confirmed by significant negative correlation between DHEAS and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) both in the subgroup of type 2 diabetic women (r = -0.51, p = 0.03) and in the subgroup of non-diabetic women (r = -0.70, p = 0.001). There was not found any significant correlation between DHEAS and insulin resistance neither in the whole group (n = 20) of obese men (r = 0.04, p = 0.87) nor in the subgroup (n = 11) of obese type 2 diabetic men (r = 0.55, p = 0.08) or in the subgroup (n = 9) of obese non-diabetic men (r = -0.42, p = 0.26).

CONCLUSIONS: Significant negative correlation between DHEAS and HOMA-IR was found in the group of obese type 2 diabetic women but not in obese non-diabetic women suggesting that low DHEAS level might be connected to the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus in obese women.

Keywords: Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate /blood/; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 /complications/; Female; Humans; Insulin Resistance; Male; Middle Aged; Obesity /complications/