Asparuh Nikolov‡, Alexander Blazhev§, Maria Tzekova|, Konstantin Kostov|, Nikola Popovski¶Corresponding author: Asparuh Nikolov ( a_nicoloff@yahoo.com ) © Asparuh Nikolov, Alexander Blazhev, Maria Tzekova, Konstantin Kostov, Nikola Popovski. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Nikolov A, Blazhev A, Tzekova M, Kostov K, Popovski N (2020) Serum Levels of Antibodies to Advanced Glycation End Products in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension. Folia Medica 62(2): 295-301. https://doi.org/10.3897/folmed.62.e47788 |  |
Background and Aims: Proteins containing advanced glycation end products are highly immunogenic and anti-advanced glycation end products antibodies (anti-AGEs antibodies) are found in the sera of diabetics.
Materials and methods: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for measuring levels of anti-advanced glycation end products antibodies in sera of 93 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension (mean age 61.4±11.3 years, diabetes duration 9.88±3.12 years; hypertension duration 9.28±4.98). These values were compared to serum anti-AGEs antibodies in 42 age and sex matched controls. Diabetics were divided in two groups according to presence or absence of microangiopathy, group 1 (n=67) and group 2 (n=26), respectively.
Results: Serum levels of anti-AGEs antibodies in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension were statistically significantly higher than those in the control group (1.39±0.39 vs. 1.05±0.32), (p<0.05). Group 1 showed significantly higher levels of anti-AGEs antibodies than those of healthy controls (1.53±0.14 vs. 1.05±0.32), (p<0.01). Anti-AGEs antibodies levels were higher in patients with microvascular complications than these in patients without complications. Anti-AGEs antibodies correlate with diastolic blood pressure (r=0.26, p=0.05) and body mass index (r=0.37, p=0.03). We found significantly higher percentage of positive patients for anti-AGEs antibodies (mean+2SD) in group 1 than in group 2.
Conclusion: Determining the levels of serum anti-AGEs antibodies can help physicians make early diagnosis and prognosis of the severity of late diabetic complications in hypertensive patients.