Comparison between erythrocyte hemoglobin and spectrin glycosylation and role of oxidative stress in type-2 diabetes mellitus.

New findings on organization of blood cell cytoskeleton represent an exciting aspect of modem cell biology and hematology, which is an interesting investigation to study diabetes. The present study was undertaken in 150 subjects. Out of these, 30 subjects were controls (Group I) and 30 were type-2 diabetics without any complication (Group II), while remaining 90 subjects were type-2 diabetics with complication (Group III). We determined erythrocyte spectrin and hemoglobin glycosylation and also estimated plasma lipid peroxide, nitric oxide and erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase activity to assess the status of oxidative stress. There was a significant increase in spectrin (P<0.001) and hemoglobin (P<0.001) glycosylation in Group II and III as compared to Group I and spectrin glycosylation was nearly three times more as compared to hemoglobin, whereas plasma levels of lipid peroxide (P<0.001) as well as nitric oxide (P<0.001) were found to be significantly increased and GPx activity (P<0.001) was significantly decreased in Group II and III as compared to Group I. However, it was also observed that spectrin (P>0.05) and hemoglobin (P>0.05) glycosylation was not significantly different in Group II and III. In contrast, there was significant rise in lipid peroxide (P<0.001), nitric oxide (P<0.001) and fall in GPx activity (P<0.001) in Group III when compared to Group II. Increased erythrocyte protein glycosylation and oxidative stress is clearly evident from our study. However, to understand the exact interplay between these two mechanisms, further studies are required.