Copyright
©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Sep 15, 2025; 16(9): 109414
Published online Sep 15, 2025. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v16.i9.109414
Published online Sep 15, 2025. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v16.i9.109414
Postprandial C-peptide is more relevant to hemoglobin A1c levels and diabetic microvascular complications than fasting C-peptide in type 2 diabetes
Zheng Wang, Ming-Qun Deng, Li-Xin Guo, Qi Pan, Department of Endocrinology, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology, Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China
Zheng Wang, Department of Endocrinology, Beijing Dongcheng District First People's Hospital, Beijing 100075, China
Co-first authors: Zheng Wang and Ming-Qun Deng.
Author contributions: Wang Z was responsible for collecting clinical data, organizing, and analyzing the data; Deng MQ was responsible for data analysis and drafting the initial manuscript; Wang Z and Deng MQ have made crucial and indispensable contributions towards the completion of the project and thus qualified as the co-first authors of the paper; Guo LX and Pan Q were responsible for reviewing and revising the entire manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final version to be published.
Supported by National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding, No. BJ-2022-145; and China Endocrinology and Metabolism Young Scientific Talent Research Project, No. 2021-N-03.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board and Ethics Committee of Beijing Hospital. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
Informed consent statement: A waiver of informed consent was applied for and granted by the Ethics Committee.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: All original data available from the corresponding author at panqi621@126.com.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Qi Pan, Professor, Department of Endocrinology, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology, Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, No. 1 Dahua Road, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100730, China. panqi621@126.com
Received: May 12, 2025
Revised: June 19, 2025
Accepted: July 28, 2025
Published online: September 15, 2025
Processing time: 124 Days and 19.7 Hours
Revised: June 19, 2025
Accepted: July 28, 2025
Published online: September 15, 2025
Processing time: 124 Days and 19.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study highlights postprandial C-peptide, particularly 2 hours postprandial C-peptide (2hCP)/postprandial blood glucose (PBG), as the strongest predictor of hemoglobin A1c in type 2 diabetes mellitus, surpassing fasting C-peptide. Higher C-peptide (CP) levels correlate with improved glycemic control. Notably, 2hCP independently reduces the risk of diabetic retinopathy and diabetic peri-neuropathy, suggesting that β cell function preservation benefits both glucose management and complications. These findings advocate prioritizing stimulated CP assessments and exploring 2hCP/PBG as a biomarker for tailored diabetes therapies.