Alterations in the activity of several glycohydrolases in red blood cell membrane from type 2 diabetes mellitus patients

The erythrocyte membrane in 71 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus was a ssessed for glycohydrolase activity: N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase, beta- D-glucuronidase, alpha- and beta-D-galactosidase, alpha- and beta-D-glucosi dase, alpha-D-mannosidase, and alpha-L-fucosidase. Only beta-D-glucuronidas e, alpha-D-glucosidase, and beta-D-glucosidase showed markedly elevated lev els with respect to the controls regardless of the presence of complication s. Among the examined patients, those with good metabolic control (not yet submitted to any therapy) showed the same enzyme levels as the reference su bjects, while the levels in patients with unsatisfactory metabolic control (treated with oral hypoglycemic and/or insulin) significantly differed from the control levels. For alpha-D-glucosidase and beta-D-glucosidase, a corr elation with glycemia and the parameters of metabolic control was also evid enced. Alterations of beta-D-glucuronidase, alpha-D-glucosidase, and beta-D -glucosidase were also ascertained in the plasma of the same diabetic patie nts according to the literature; each enzyme correlated with the other, eit her in plasma or in the erythrocyte membrane. This study shows a correlatio n between plasma and erythrocyte membrane levels for these three enzymes. T he strict parallelism of the glycohydrolases in the two different compartme nts provides a profile of these enzymes in the pathology of diabetes. Copyr ight (C) 1999 by W.B. Saunders Company.