Free radical activity in obese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Abstract

Obese patients and obese diabetic patients had lower blood glutathione than control subjects (p<0.02 and respectively p<0.04) and higher plasma MDA, an end product of lipid peroxidation (p<0.004 and respectively p<0.01). There was a significant difference between plasma MDA from obese and obese diabetic subjects (p<0.05). Plasma thiols (expressed as micromol/mg protein) did not differ between the three groups. Plasma dicarbonyls concentrations were significantly increased in obese (p<0.043) and obese diabetic patients (p<0.047) and SOD activity (U/g Hb) was significantly decreased in obese (p<0.0 ) and obese diabetic patients (p<0.05) compared to controls. Analysing the results of our study, which show that most of the markers of oxidative stress are modified in the same way in obesity and obesity with diabetes mellitus type 2, we suppose that obesity leads to oxidative stress which can contribute to obesity-associated diseases such as diabetes mellitus.