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Protein oxidation in diabetes mellitus

Julius, U.; Obrosova, I. G.; Pietzsch, J.

Growing evidence indicates that diabetes mellitus is accompanied by oxidative stress. In addition to lipids and nucleic acids, proteins also undergo oxidation. Diabetic patients have several groups of oxidatively modified proteins, i.e., advanced glycation end-products, carbonylated proteins, and advanced oxidation protein products, in the circulation. Oxidized proteins have also been detected in tissues of animals with experimental diabetes. Oxidative modifications of mitochondrial proteins are blunted in diabetic conditions. Of special interest is the oxidation of apolipoprotein B-100, the structural protein of low density lipoproteins. Oxidatively modified apolipoprotein B-100 molecules had been detected in atherosclerotic lesions as well as in the circulation. Oxidatively altered proteins lead to vascular damage. Increased oxidative stress was also observed in gestational diabetes. Protein oxidation plays a major role in the development of diabetes complications and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy, neuropathy and retinopathy. In diabetic nephropathy which develops as a result of complex interplay of hemodynamic and metabolic factors, oxidative protein modifications contribute to albuminuria, mesangial expansion, glomerulosclerosis and tubulo-interstitial fibrosis. There is also strong experimental evidence that morphological abnormalities of diabetic retinopathy, such as pericyte dropout, formation of acellular capillaries, are associated with non-enzymatic glycosylation (glycation) and accumulation of advanced glycation end-products. Protein oxidation also takes place in the lens and plays a central role in the development of cataract. Growing evidence implicates advanced protein glycoxidation and lipoxidation in the pathogenesis of both somatic and autonomic diabetic neuropathy, and, in particular, motor and sensory nerve conduction deficits, neurovascular dysfunction, diabetic neuropathic pain and loss of sensory function, and morphological abnormalities characteristic for peripheral and autonomic neuropathy.

  • Contribution to external collection
    Pietzsch, J.: Protein Oxidation and Disease, Recent Research Developments in Pathological Biochemistry 1, Trivandrum, Kerala, India: Research Signpost, 2006, 81-308-0028-4, 293-325

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-8996
Publ.-Id: 8996