Serum antioxidative enzymes levels and oxidative stress products in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus

INTRODUCTION: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an oxidative stress condition in addition to being a chronic metabolic disease. In this study, our aim is to investigate the activity of antioxidative enzymes and the products of oxidative stress in children and adolescents with TIDM and compare the findings with those in healthy control subject.
METHODS: The study enrolled 41 children and adolescents with T1DM (mean age 11.4±3.3 years; 21 female, 20 male) and 25 healthy subjects (mean age 11.3±3.1 years; 8 female, 17 male) with similar age and gender distribution. Serum samples were obtained to detect the antioxidative enzymes of paraoxonase (PON), arylesteraze (ARE), oxidation degradation product of malondialdehyde (MDA) and also zinc which acts as antioxidant.
RESULTS: We found a significant decrease PON activity and zinc levels in diabetics as compared to healthy controls ( p=0.021; p<0.001, respectively). Zinc was negatively correlated to HbA1c (r = –0.317, p = 0.049). MDA and ARE did not showed a significant difference in the T1DM patients as compared to healthy subjects.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Zinc level and PON activity were lower in diabetic children and adolescents. Further studies with larger samples are required to confirm their roles in the fallowing and prognosis of TIDM.