Plasma level of mitochondrial coupling factor 6 increases in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Coupling factor 6 (CF6) is a novel endogenous inhibitor of prostacyclin. Plasma CF6 and 6-keto-PGF1a were measured by radioimmunoassay in 70 consecutively recruited patients with type 2 diabetes and in 56 healthy controls. A significantly increased plasma CF6 level was found in diabetics compared with controls. The CF6 level was inversely correlated with plasma 6-keto-PGF1a level and positively correlated with blood glucose and lipids. These results suggest that CF6 might be an obvious marker of impaired endothelium and might contribute to vascular damage in diabetes.