Alteration in enzymatic antioxidant defense in diabetes mellitus

Diabetes is a multifaceted disease occurring due to defective synthesis or action of insulin and as it progresses, complications develops which are associated with oxidative stress and decreased level of antioxidants. Hence this study was carried out to evaluate the levels of MDA and antioxidants like GSH, GPx, Gred, SOD during early phase of the disease(recently diagnosed) in diabetic individuals and compare with normal subjects. A very significant increase (p<0.0001) was observed in the antioxidants levels, MDA ,HbA 1C and fructosamine in the study group as compared to the ones in the control. Increased expression of antioxidant enzymes was found to be positively associated with the free radical levels indicating that the body was trying to respond to the oxidative stress developed due to hyperglycemia during early phase. Hence we conclude that the body tries to take care of the oxidative stress in the initial phase of the disease but this fails over a period of time leading to complications associated with diabetes.