oxidative dna damage in female patients with diabetes mellitus type 2.

Diabetes mellitus type 2 is very often associated with increased levels of reactive oxygen species. Previous studies also showed higher DNA damage in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 compared to healthy controls (Tatsch et al., 2012; Blasiak et al., 2004). However, blood glucose concentration and level of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) can vary widely between diabetic patients and depends on country specific threshold levels. Therefore our aim was to analyze DNA damage in patients with lower glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c<7.5%; n=74) vs. patients with higher glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c>7.5%; n=72). In total 146 patients of the local diabetes outpatient clinic in Vienna were enrolled (age: 67.5±9,9years; BMI: 35.0±7.6kg/m²; diabetes duration: 14.4±8.0years).The Comet assay was performed in PBMCs (strand breaks, resistance to H2O2, FPG-sensitive sites) and whole blood (strand breaks, FPG-sensitive sites). No differences in DNA damage were found between the two groups of low vs. high HbA1c. In addition, neither diabetes duration nor medication (Insulin vs. oral antidiabetics) had an influence on DNA damage. Therefore we can conclude that female patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 in Austria are under optimal treatment to control blood sugar and other metabolic parameter, that no differences in DNA damage could be observed.