Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) play important roles in the progression of
diabetic complications. Although
sarcopenia is recently recognized as another complication associated with
diabetes mellitus, its mechanism still remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the relationship between serum levels of
pentosidine, which is one of AGEs, and
insulin-like growth factor-I (
IGF-I) vs. skeletal muscle mass by whole body dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry in 133 postmenopausal women with
type 2 diabetes. Relative skeletal muscle mass index (RSMI) was calculated by following formula; appendicular skeletal muscle mass divided by height in meters squared. Simple correlation analyses showed that serum
pentosidine levels were significantly and negatively correlated with muscle mass of legs (r=-0.21, p=0.017) and RSMI (r=-0.18, p=0.022), and that
IGF-I was significantly and positively correlated with muscle mass of arms and legs (r=0.23, p=0.008 and r=0.30, p=0.001, respectively) as well as RSMI (r=0.20, p=0.022). Moreover, after adjusting for age, duration of diabetes, serum
creatinine, HbA1c, and
IGF-I,
pentosidine was significantly and negatively associated with RSMI (β=-0.27, p=0.018) and marginally with muscle mass of legs (β=-0.18, p=0.071). The associations between
IGF-I and indices of muscle mass such as arms, legs and RSMI were still significant after additional adjustment for
pentosidine (p=0.016, 0.019 and 0.021, respectively). These findings indicate that increased serum
pentosidine and decreased
IGF-I are independent risk factors for loss of muscle mass in postmenopausal women with
type 2 diabetes.