ABSTRACT
This work was conducted on 40 young and 40 elderly subjects. All were healthy not suffering from any disease or metabolic derangement and were not under drug therapy. They were subjected to thorough clinical examination and routine laboratory investigations. In addition, each case was subjected to the determination of plasma glucose levels, both during fasting and two hours after ingesting 75 g glucose as well as the estimation of serum levels of fructosamine, albumin, uric acid, apolipoproteins A and B, triglycerides, total cholesterol [TC] and the cholesterol contents in high density lipoproteins and low density lipoproteins [HDL-C and LDL-C] with a consequent calculation of the ratios TC/HDL-C, TC/DL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C. Elderly subjects investigated in this study showed glucose intolerance, hypoalbuminemia, hypercholesterolemia, increased serum levels of apolipoprotein B and a tendency to hyperuricemia. A significant difference between the elderly males and females was detected for the serum levels of HDL-C, apolipoprotein A and uric acid