Diabetes, Vol 28, Issue 11 1006-1010, Copyright © 1979 by American Diabetes Association

ARTICLES

Serum protein-bound hexose in diabetes: the effect of glycemic control

AL Kennedy, TW Kandell and TJ Merimee

To determine whether the carbohydrate content of serum proteins is related to overall glycemic control, we studied serum protein-bound hexose and glycosylated hemoglobin [HbA1(a+b+c)] in 37 ambulant diabetic patients and 32 nondiabetic controls. Protein-bound hexose was correlated with HbA1(a+b+c) in the diabetic patients (r = 0.36, P less than 0.025). The mean protein-bound hexose level of the diabetic patients was greater than that of the controls (190.8 versus 174.7 mg/dl, P less than 0.01), but diabetic patients with HbA1(a+b+c) less than 12% had a mean protein-bound hexose similar to the controls. In nine of the diabetic patients, mean protein-bound hexose and HbA1(a+b+c) were significantly reduced during a period of intensive outpatient care, while two major serum glycoproteins, haptoglobins and alpha-1-antitrypsin, were unchanged. Our findings support the hypothesis that increased glycosylation of serum proteins may occur in diabetes mellitus; this abnormality in serum protein-bound hexose may be corrected by close attention to overall glycemic control.
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