The serum polysaccharides in diabetic patients with and without degenerative vascular disease.

Complex carbohydrate substances have been demonstrated histologically in hyaline material present in the glomerular and retinal capillary lesions which develop in diabetic patients. There has been increasing speculation that the source of this material might be polysaccharides present in abnormal amounts in the blood of such individuals (1-3). Hitherto, however, the glycoproteins in the sera of diabetic patients have not been investigated systematically. A few observations suggest that abnormal concentrations of these substances occur in the serum of such patients (4), but others indicate that they are within the normal range (5, 6). Insufficient additional information is presented in these studies to allow correlation of the values observed with the absence, or presence, and extent of vascular complications. This report is based on a study of certain polysaccharide components in the sera of diabetic patients with and without clinically detectable degenerative vascular disease. The results indicate that significant increases in the serum concentrations of some of the substances measured do occur in individuals with this complication. The possible significance of these observations is discussed.