ENDOTHELIN-1-21 PLASMA-CONCENTRATIONS IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH INSULIN-DEPENDENT DIABETES-MELLITUS

This study is based on the hypothesis that endothelins (ETs), which ar e 21-amino acid peptides with vasoactive and proliferative properties, could be implicated in the development of complications of insulin de pendent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) in children and adolescents. We deter mined plasma ET 1-21 concentrations by radioimmunoassay in 59 patients with IDDM (32 male, 27 female) and in 41 healthy siblings (20 male, 2 1 female) and investigated the association of ET 1-21 concentrations w ith age, sex, control of diabetes (expressed as % of glycosylated hemo globin), duration of disease and presence of complications. Plasma ET 1-21 concentrations (mean +/- SEM) were 14.12 +/- 0.30 pg/ml in IDDM a nd 15.34 +/- 0.47 pg/ml in healthy siblings, The difference was statis tically significant (p=0.01) after controlling for age and sex by mult iple logistic regression. In the group with IDDM, analysis of covarian ce showed duration of disease to be the only variable associated with ET 1-21 values (b=-0.2179 pg/ml/yr, p=0.04), It is concluded that in y oungsters with IDDM ET plasma concentrations are lower than in healthy controls, negatively associated with duration of the disease and not directly implicated in diabetic angiopathy.