J. Vidal et al., FAD-GLYCEROPHOSPHATE DEHYDROGENASE-ACTIVITY IN LYMPHOCYTES OF TYPE-2 DIABETIC-PATIENTS AND THEIR RELATIVES, Diabetes research and clinical practice, 31(1-3), 1996, pp. 17-25
The activities of FAD-linked glycerophosphate dehydrogenase (m-GDH), g
lutamate dehydrogenase (GlDH), glutamate-pyruvate transaminase (GPT) a
nd glutamate-oxalacetate transaminase (GOT) were measured in purified
populations of CD3 + lymphocytes from 55 control subjects, 62 type-2 d
iabetics and 50 non-diabetic relatives of the latter patients. The act
ivity of m-GDH was measured by both a radioisotopic procedure and colo
urimetric technique. As judged from these measurements and relative to
the paired value for GlDH, the incidence of abnormally low m-GDH acti
vity was significantly higher in type-2 diabetics than in control subj
ects. Moreover, the paired ratio in reaction velocity between the colo
urimetric and radioisotopic assay of m-GDH was abnormally high in pati
ents with low m-GDH activity. Low m-GDH activity often coincided with
increased GPT activity in plasma or high GPT/GOT ratio in lymphocytes,
No obvious clustering of these anomalies was found in relatives of di
abetic patients. These findings suggest that an inherited or acquired
genomic defect of m-GDH in lymphocytes, and possibly in pancreatic B-c
ells, may participate to the pathogenesis of non-insulin-dependent dia
betes mellitus.