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Background: A genetic susceptibility for diabetic kidney disease is suspected since diabetic nephropathy occurs in only 30 to 40% of type I diabetic patients. As elevated von Willebrand factor (vWF) plasma concentrations have been reported to precede the development of microalbuminuria in type I diabetes, we addressed a possible implication of vWF as a genetic determinant for diabetic nephropathy., Methods: Three known vWF gene polymorphisms were genotyped in a group of 493 type I diabetic subjects, all showing proliferative retinopathy, but with various stages of renal involvement, which ranged from no microalbuminuria, despite a mean duration of diabetes of 31 years, to advanced nephropathy (GENEDIAB Study): Thr789Ala (Rsa I), M-/M+ (Msp I) (intron 19), and Ala1381Thr (Hph I). Plasma vWF and factor VIII (F VIII) levels were also measured in this population., Results: Plasma vWF and F VIII levels were increased in diabetic subjects with nephropathy (P < 0.001) or with coronary heart disease (CHD; P < 0.001), but there was no interaction of both conditions on plasma levels. The Msp I polymorphism (M-/M+) was weakly associated with nephropathy (P = 0. 04), but this association was not more significant when other risk factors were used in a logistic regression analysis. The vWF Thr789Ala polymorphism was associated with CHD (P = 0.002) and with plasma vWF levels. Logistic regression analysis indicated an independent and codominant effect of the Thr789Ala polymorphism on CHD, but not on nephropathy, with a maximal risk for Ala/Ala homozygotes (OR = 4.2, 95% CI, 1.8 to 9.9, P = 0.0008)., Conclusion: It is unlikely that polymorphisms in the vWF gene contribute to the risk for nephropathy in type I diabetic patients. However, the Thr789Ala polymorphism might affect the risk for CHD in this population through modulation of plasma vWF levels.

Paraoxonase is a high-density-lipoprotein-associated enzyme capable of hydrolysing lipid peroxides. Thus it might protect lipoproteins from oxidation. It has two isoforms, which arise from a glutamine (A isoform) to arginine (B isoform) interchange at position 192. The relevance of this polymorphism to coronary heart disease (CHD) in non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients was investigated in case-control study. Of the 434 patients, 171 had confirmed coronary artery disease; the other 263 had no history of such disease. The B allele and AB+BB genotypes were associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease. Compared with subjects homozygous for the A allele (AA genotype), the odds ratio of CHD for subjects homozygous for the B allele was 2.5 (95% CI 1.2-5.3) and that for those heterozygous for the B allele was 1.6 (95% CI 1.1-2.4), suggesting a codominant effect on cardiovascular risk. When subjected to multivariate analysis, the B allele remained significantly associated with CHD (odds ratio 1.94, p = 0.03). The paraoxonase gene polymorphism is thus an independent cardiovascular risk factor in non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients. A possible explanation for this finding is that activity of the paraoxonase B isotype does not protect well against lipid oxidation, a major atherogenic pathway.

Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY), characterised by non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) with an early age of onset, is a genetically heterogeneous disorder. In most MODY kindreds described in France, chronic hyperglycaemia is caused by mutations in the gene encoding pancreatic beta-cell and liver glucokinase (GCK). We here report the beta-cell secretory profiles of nine patients from four GCK-linked MODY kindreds. First-phase insulin secretion assessed by an intravenous glucose test was comparable in patients and seven controls. However, beta-cell secretory response to continuous glucose stimulus during a hyperglycaemic glucose clamp was significantly reduced: mean plasma insulin values of 12 (SD 7) vs 40 (11) mU/l (p = 0.0001) and mean plasma C-peptide values 1.20 (0.30) vs 2.61 (0.37) (p = 0.0001). This secretory profile is different from those for NIDDM with late age of onset or MODY not linked to GCK. Fasting plasma insulin and C-peptide in patients were inappropriately low in relation to concomitant plasma glucose level. Furthermore, during a hyperinsulinaemic euglycaemic clamp, endogenous insulin secretion at euglycaemia (5 mmol/l) was suppressed in patients but not in controls. These results suggest that mutant GCK may lead to chronic hyperglycaemia by raising the threshold of circulating glucose level which induces insulin secretion. These data provide the first demonstration of a primary pancreatic secretory defect associated with a form of NIDDM.

The relation between poor glycemic control and the development of diabetic microangiopathy has long been recognized. However hyperglycemia alone cannot account for the striking heterogeneity of diabetic patients regarding the presence or absence of microangiopathic lesions. This study was therefore designed to determine the prevalence of retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy, and to identify the factors respectively associated with these lesions. In 157 patients with type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes, the following parameters were recorded: sex, age, duration of diabetes, body mass index, fasting plasma glucose, HbA1c, blood pressure, antihypertensive treatment, tobacco consumption, urinary albumin excretion, plasma creatinine, and presence of retinopathy and neuropathy. One-half of these patients had retinopathy, 32% neuropathy, and 29% nephropathy. Patients with nephropathy exhibited concomitantly high prevalences of retinopathy (69%) and neuropathy (49%). Among patients with retinopathy, 39% had nephropathy; 79% of those with neuropathy had concomitant retinopathy. For each microangiopathic localization, patients with the disease had significantly higher values (p less than 0.05) than those without for duration of diabetes, prevalence of hypertension, and systolic blood pressure. Stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that the following were independent predictive factors of each localization: for nephropathy, systolic blood pressure; for retinopathy, duration of diabetes; and for neuropathy, duration of diabetes, age, and HbA1c.

Genetic factors are essential to the occurrence of insulin-dependent diabetes (IDD) and non-insulin-dependent diabetes (NIDD), and all that environmental factors do is facilitate the development of diabetes in genetically predisposed subjects. Recent advances in molecular biology have improved our understanding of diabetic heredity. IDD is closely linked to the HLA region of chromosome 6. Ninety percent of IDD belong to the DR3 or DR4 group. The occurrence of IDD is facilitated by a peculiar conformation of the HLA DQ molecule which permits the presentation of antigens to the T-cells. Other genes still have to be discovered since IDD seems to be of polygenic origin. NIDD is even more "hereditary" than IDD, but owing to the lack of an unquestionable marker the responsible genes cannot be located with certainty. Several possible genes such as those of insulin, insulin receptor and glucose transporter, are suspected, at least in some forms of NIDD--a clinically and biologically highly heterogeneous disease. Widespread family studies should, in a not too distant future, locate the responsible gene thereby leading to early detection or even prevention of NIDD.

Cardiovascular diseases represent the major cause of premature death in diabetics. These patients usually die in an intensive care unit or a cardiological clinic, not in a diabetic clinic. In the acute phase of a myocardial infarct the determination of glycosylated haemoglobin is the best indicator for the diagnosis of diabetes. During the first month after the myocardial infarct the mortality among diabetics is double that of the general population. The causes of this phenomenon are multiple, some of which may be prevented. In the case of diabetics coronary insufficiency is characterised by an unquestionable clinical and prognostic specificity whereas, from the therapeutic point of view, the purely cardiological problems are identical with those found in non-diabetics.

The high incidence of thrombosis in inflammatory states and previous reports of increased adhesion of erythrocytes to endothelial cells in diabetes mellitus and sickle cell anemia prompted us to study the effect of fibrinogen and fibronectin on erythrocyte-endothelial interactions. Purified human fibrinogen enhanced erythrocyte adhesion in a concentration-dependent fashion. Erythrocytes from normal subjects, diabetics, and patients with sickle cell anemia were studied. The ratio between the adhesion of normal red cells in a 4 gm/L fibrinogen to adhesion in buffer without fibrinogen was 3.6 (p less than 0.001). Fibronectin also increased red cell adhesion but the effect was less than that of fibrinogen. The addition of fibronectin to fibrinogen limited the enhancing effect of fibrinogen, although the effect of the mixture was greater than that of fibronectin alone (p less than 0.05). Anti-von Willebrand factor and antifibronectin, which react with endothelial cells, also produced an increase in erythrocyte adhesion. The potentiation of adhesion by fibrinogen was also seen in experiments using red cells from patients with sickle cell anemia or diabetes mellitus. These observations provide possible mechanisms for the involvement of plasma proteins in vascular occlusive diseases.