High dose thiamine intervention for non traditional risk factors in type 2 diabetic angiopathies

ABSTRACT

Background: Impaired fibrinolysis, prothrombotic states, altered second messenger signaling mechanisms and enhanced oxidative stress levels have all been termed as the nontraditional risk factors of micro and macrovascular disease in diabetes mellitus. These are significant promoters of the pathogenesis of diabetes in general and type 2 diabetes in particular. High dose Vitamin B1 [thiamine] has been found at preclinical level to play an ameliorative role through a number of intracellular metabolic pathways. In order to demonstrate whether this was translatable to a clinical therapeutic level in type 2 diabetics, pioneering research on the effect of high dose thiamine on associated markers of incipient diabetic nephropathy, hemostasis [plasminogen activation inhibitor 1PAI1], oxidative stress [plasma thiols] and seond messenger signaling [protein kinase C] was conducted