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-PGF(1a) 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-PGF(1a) 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.