A STUDY OF ANGIOTENSIN CONVERTING ENZYME GENE POLYMORPHISM IN THE PATIENTSWITH DIABETIC NEUROPATHY
Abstract:
Neuropathies are a common complication of diabetes mellitus. There are a few theories to explain diabetic neuropathy: the polyol pathway theory, the oxidative stress, protein kinase C activation, and the glycosylation end-product theory; all contributes to microvascular injury involving small blood vessels that supply nerves and nerve dysfunction. It has become obvious that several pathophysiological factors probably operate simultaneously and it may be too simplistic to try to explain the many clinical presentations and pathological findings of diabetic neuropathy by a single theory. A lot of studies suggest that diabetic neuropathy may involve genetic susceptibility. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene I (insertion)/D (deletion) polymorphism in the development of diabetic neuropathy. The study consists of 23 patients with diabetic neuropathy and 20 without diabetic neuropathy. ACE polymorphism was detected by the restriction fragment length polymorphism method after a polymerase chain reaction. A significantly higher frequency of ACE I allele was observed in the diabetic neuropathy patients compared with the healthy control group where there was a higher frequency of ACE D allele. The distribution of ACE genotypes and alleles frequency showed differences between the patients with diabetic neuropathy and without this complication (p<0.05). Our results indicate that ACE D allele protects against diabetic neuropathy
full text article in Romanian (.RO) |
full text article in English (.EN) |