Total and ganglioside-bound sialic acid content of lymphocytes from non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients.

The total and ganglioside-bound sialic acid content of unfractionated blood lymphocytes obtained from normal-weight healthy subjects (n = 17) and non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients on oral hypoglycemic drugs arbitrarily divided into normal-weight (n = 11), moderately overweight (n = 14) and severely overweight (n = 17) subgroups were examined. In normal-weight diabetics the level of lipid-bound sialic acid (gangliosides) of lymphocytes was found to be reduced (p less than 0.01). A more pronounced decrease (p less than 0.001) was observed for the lymphocyte total sialic acid of normal-weight and moderately overweight diabetics as compared to healthy subjects. In severely overweight non-insulin-dependent diabetics the decrease of total sialic acid was less pronounced compared to that found in healthy subjects. Whether this finding was due to obesity in these patients remains to be clarified.