Nucleoside deaminases activity levels in diabetes mellitus, possible new indices for early detection of diabetic nephropathy

The clinical value of assaying the activity of the nucleoside deaminases-cytidine deaminase [CD], guanosine deaminase [GD] and adenosine deaminase [AD] was studied in thirty-nine type I and fifty- three type II diabetic patients together with fifteen completely healthy subjects as controls. The changes were presented in both types of diabetes. The degree of control did not affect the AD activity levels. However, patients with complicated disease had lower activity levels of AD than uncomplicated diabetes. This suggested that AD deficiency in diabetes is at least in part attributing to decreased immunity in diabetic patients. The possibility of being associated with inheritance of type I and type II diabetes could not be excluded. The increased activity levels of CD and GD could arise from evident or latent nephropathy, where the activity levels of both enzymes were significantly high in patients with nephropathy compared with those without nephropathy. The correlation between these two enzymes with either duration of diabetes or fructosamine supported this hypothesis. Thus, these enzymes could be valuable new indices in the early detection of diabetic nephropathy