Preventive aspirin treatment of streptozotocin induced diabetes: blockage of oxidative status and revertion of heme enzymes inhibition

Some late complications of diabetes are associated with alterations in the structure and function of proteins due to glycation and free radicals gener ation. Aspirin inhibits protein glycation by acetylation of free amino grou ps. In the diabetic status, it was demonstrated that several enzymes of hem e pathway were diminished. The aim of this work has been to investigate the in vivo effect of short and long term treatment with acetylsalicylic acid in streptozotocin induced diabetic mice. In both treatments, the acetylsali cylic acid prevented delta-aminolevulinic dehydratase and porphobilinogen d eaminase inactivation in diabetic mice and blocked the accumulation of lipo peroxidative aldehydes. Catalase activity was significantly augmented in di abetic mice and the long term treatment with aspirin partially reverted it. We propose that oxidative stress might play an important role in streptozo tocin induced diabetes. Our results suggest that aspirin can prevent some o f the late complications of diabetes, lowering glucose concentration and pr obably inhibiting glycation by acetylation of protein amino groups. (C) 200 0 Published by Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.