PLASMA ENDOTHELIN-1 LEVELS IN NON-INSULIN-DEPENDENT DIABETES-MELLITUSPATIENTS WITH MACROVASCULAR DISEASE

Background Endothelin-1 (ET-1) with its well-known vasoconstrictive an d mitogenic action and through its interaction with insulin, blood glu cose, and lipids might pray an important role in the accelerated ather ogenic process in diabetes mellitus. Objective To determine whether ET -1 levels are indicative of macrovascular disease in diabetes mellitus . Methods In the present cross-sectional study, plasma ET-1 concentrat ions were measured in members of three groups. The first group consist ed of 20 patients (15 men and five women; aged 56.3 +/- 12.5 years) wi th non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease , the second group of 20 patients (16 men and four women, aged 56.9 +/ - 11.2 years) with coronary artery disease only, and the third group o f 10 healthy subjects who served as controls. ET-1 levels were determi ned by a radioimmunoassay. Results The mean plasma ET-1 levels for the three groups were 3.59 +/- 1.88, 4.31 +/- 1.32, and 4.42 +/- 1.01 pmo l/l respectively, and there was no statistically significant differenc e among the groups (P = 0.23). There was also no correlation between t he plasma ET-1 concentration and age, sex, body mass index, triglyceri de, total cholesterol, high-, low- and very-low density lipoprotein le vels, for all groups, and, for the first group, hemoglobin A(1)c (HbA( 1)c), the duration of diabetes mellitus. Conclusion The plasma ET-1 co ncentration is not elevated in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patients with macrovascular disease, which might reflect the fact tha t its action occurs in a paracrine or an autocrine rather than an endo crine fashion and suggests that ET-1 levels are not necessarily indica tive of macrovascular disease in diabetes mellitus. (C) Rapid Science Publishers ISSN 0954-6928.