Oxidative Stress Correlates with Complications Among Diabetic Patients Attending a Diabetic Clinic in Muhimbili National Hospital, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Abstract

In diabetes, persistent hyperglycemia results in increased production of free radicals especially oxygen free radicals, which can cause cell destruction and tissue injury resulting in cell dysfunction. With the premise that oxidative stress is a major cause of diabetic complications, we conducted a controlled laboratory based investigation on level of lipid peroxide levels in the serum of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetic patients attending Muhimbili National Hospital. From our clinical data it was observed that majority of the patients had higher waist to hip ration and body mass index, which suggests that the patients were either overweight or obese. The enrolled diabetic patients had higher lipid peroxide levels than controls and also Type 2 patients had higher lipid peroxide levels than Type 1 patients. Moreover, patients with known complications had higher lipid peroxide levels than patients without complications. The lipid peroxide levels in the diabetic patients were significantly different from that of the control subjects enrolled in the study. A majority of the diabetic patients had a poorly controlled blood sugar. Our finding hints that despite the fact that diabetic patients in our clinic are on follow up, they are at a risk of developing coronary heart diseases, neuropathy and other secondary diabetic complications.

Oxidative Stress as an Underlying Contributor in the Development of Chronic Complications in Diabetes Mellitus

“…Considering these variants, Kimura et al [61] identified increased levels of EC-SOD in T2DM carriers, especially in the presence of micro and macrovascular complications. On the other hand, diminished SOD activity was also observed in such individuals [63,73,75,78]. As for glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase (CAT) enzymes, Colak et al [75] detected reduced activity for both in patients with T2DM presenting with complications, whereas Kasznick et al [63] observed diminishment for GPx activity in T2DM carriers presenting with neuropathy, while Moemen et al observed a decrease in the activity of GPx in diabetic patients with proliferative neuropathy (PDR) [74].…”