relevance of protein C and antithrombin III in Diabetes mellitus

ABSTRACT

Protein C-a natural coagulation inhibitor is activated by thrombin. It cleaves off an NH2 terminal activation peptide. Many investigators reported that PC has been incriminated in hypercoagulability state in diabetic patients. This induced us to study PC activity and AT III concentration in this disease. We investigated 18 diabetic patients. On oral hypoglycemic therapy for PC activity and AT III concentration and compared their results those of 10 selected healthy control subjects. A highly significant reduction was found in both studied parameters in the diabetic group. These findings stress the major role of hyperglycemia in determining PC reduction in diabetics, and suggest that PC reduction probably associated to hyperglycemia enhanced thrombin formation