Two sides of the pancreas: Exocrine insufficiency is correlated with endocrine dysfunction in type 2 diabetes

•It is the first study about the prevalence of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (PEI) in Chinese patients with T2DM. Our research showed the frequent occurrence of PEI in Chinese patients with T2DM.•We provided the direct evidence of close connection between the exocrine and endocrine pancreases. Fasting C-peptide is positively correlated with FE-1 and has independent predictive value for PEI with good sensitivity and specificity.•The pancreatic islet function and exocrine impairment of patients with T2DM in clinical practice should be paid attention.. Recently, numerous studies validated frequent pancreatic exocrine dysfunction in patients with diabetes. However, the prevalence of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (PEI) in diabetes mellitus (DM) varies widely among studies. This study aims to determine the prevalence of PEI in Chinese people with type 2 DM (T2DM) by measuring the fecal elastase-1 (FE-1) levels and further identify potential factors that influence pancreatic exocrine function in patients with T2DM. A total of 85 patients with T2DM without known exocrine pancreatic disorders or digestive system diseases were recruited. Fecal samples were submitted to measure FE-1 levels, and blood samples were collected to investigate pancreatic endocrine function and metabolic biomarkers in all participants. The multiple logistic regression analysis was established to evaluate the influencing factors of PEI in patients with T2DM. The potential predictors of PEI were examined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The prevalence of PEI measured by low FE-1 in T2DM was 18.8%. The Spearman correlation demonstrated that the FE-1 level was inversely correlated with DM duration (r = − 0.360, P = 0.001) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level (r = − 0.228, P = 0.036). A highly significant positive association was observed between FE-1 and fasting C-peptide (FCP) levels (r = 0.451, P