Search

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether oxidative stress parameters were correlated with adhesion molecules derived from endothelial/platelet activation in a group of juveniles with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Indicative parameters of patient oxidant/antioxidant capacity were measured and associated with P-selectin and tetranectin (TN), markers of endothelial/platelet activation, in the plasma of 45 diabetic children and adolescents and 20 healthy age-matched subjects (HS). RESULTS: Significantly, higher nitrate/nitrite (NOx) and lipid hydroperoxide (LPO) levels (p=0.049 and p=0.0011, respectively), lower glutathione peroxidase activity (GPx; p=0.038), and elevated TN and P-selectin plasma levels (p=0.0046 and p=0.042, respectively) were found in T1DM children compared with HS. Well-controlled T1DM children (HbA1c 7%) showed significantly higher TN, sP-selectin and LPO (p=0.0064, p=0.0234 and p=0.0121, respectively), a tendency to higher NOx (p=0.063) compared with HS and only TN higher (p=0.0123) compared with well-controlled patients. Patients with shorter diabetes duration (3 yr) differed significantly in all the examined parameters (TN, p=0.0015; GPx, p=0.0420; NOx, p=0.0196; LPO, p=0.0054; sP-selectin, p=0.0187) compared with HS. CONCLUSIONS: Decreased antioxidative protection from simultaneous LPO and NOx overproduction is evident in T1DM juveniles with a parallel endothelial/platelet activation even in the first years of the disease, being more pronounced later in diabetes progression, contributing to the vascular complications of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serological typing of HLA-DR antigens was performed on 116 patients with IDDM and 380 healthy controls. As expected a high incidence of HLA-DR3 and DR4 antigens was observed in patients with IDDM. However, the HLA-DR2 antigen, which rarely occurs in IDDM and is considered to confer protection against IDDM, was found in equal distribution (35%) in both patients and controls. HLA-DQ genotype analysis in 10 children with IDDM and 13 controls, all with the HLA-DR2 haplotype, showed that the great majority of affected children and normal controls carry the DR2 (16) or AZH-DQA1 *0102, DQB *0502 subtype. The high incidence of this subtype in normal individuals possibly explains why the DR2 antigen does not offer protection against IDDM in Greeks.

Two patients, a 13-year-old boy and his 24-year-old sister, were diagnosed as mannosidosis type II cases, on the basis of both presenting extremely reduced plasma and white blood cell acid-alpha-mannosidase are reported. With the exception of mental retardation and neurosensory deafness the two siblings manifested a wide phenotypic variability. The boy had several facial features indicating a lysosomal storage disorder, as well as spondylolisthesis. His sister, apart from heavy eyebrows and lower jaw prognathism appeared normal.