ABSTRACT
Oxidative stress is increased in diabetes mellitus and is thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of the chronic complications of diabetes. Oxidized low density lipoprotein [LDL] causes endothelial activation, injury and dysfunction. Serum oxidized LDL receptors [sLOX-1] levels have been reported to be associated with atherosclerosis and diabetic vasculopathy. To compare soluble Lectin-like Oxidized Low Density Lipoprotein receptor-1 [sLOX-1] levels in serum of type 2 Diabetes mellitus patients with normal volunteers; and to study its association with other biochemical parameters. Study participants included in this pilot study were males and females aged 25-50 years. Fasting blood specimens were collected from 21 normal volunteers and 51 type 2 diabetic patients visiting the outpatient department of the Gulf Medical College Hospital, Ajman, UAE. All diabetics included were on Metformin. None of them had renal, cardiovascular or liver disease. Routine biochemical investigations [Lipid profile, Fasting Plasma Glucose, HbA1C] were performed on Roche Cobas 6000 analyzer. Serum Total Antioxidant status was estimated using a kit from Sigma Aldrich, USA. sLOX-1 level in serum was estimated using Human LOX-1 ELISA Kit from Cell Biolabs, USA. Statistical analysis was done on IBM SPSS software version21. Serum sLOX-1 levels did not follow a [normal] statistical distribution in the population. No difference in the serum sLOX-1 levels was seen between the normal and diabetic participants. sLOX-1 levels did not correlate with age, BMI, fasting glucose, total-, LDL- or HDL-Cholesterol, triglyceride levels or total antioxidant status. However, within the diabetic population, sLOX-1 levels correlated weakly but significantly with the duration of diabetes. Since sLOX-1 levels in serum showed high variability in the population and did not follow a normal distribution, further studies with larger sample sizes are needed. Correlation of sLOX-1 levels with duration of diabetes is interesting and needs to be investigated further