Endocrine Abstracts

Aim of the study was to investigate the lymphocytes (lymph) subpopulations as a part of immune response in peripheral blood among the patients with Diabetes mellitus type 2 (DMT2).

Patients and methods: A prospective, cross-sectional, comparative, ‘case-control’ study was conducted among 70 patients with DMT2. The levels of lymph subtypes[-general nonspecific T-lymph (CD3+); T-helper lymph (CD4+); T--cytotoxic lymph (CD8+), natural killers [NK cells (CD3\ CD16+/CD56)] and B-lymph (CD19+)] in blood was measured and compared by flow-cytometric analisys (FAC Sort, BD).Results were compared to those of 22 patients with Diabetes mellitus type 1 (DMT1) and 21 healthy persons. The data was processed using the statistics software.

Results: No significant differences between arterial blood pressure, НвА1с levels and lipid profile among the patients with DMT1 and DMT2. No differences in the total leukocyte count between diabetic persons (DMT1–6.91 ± 1.32.10⁹/l; DMT2–7.28 ± 1.85.10⁹/l; controls-6.89 ± 1.07.10⁹/l). The results from flowcytometric investigation showsignificantly higher absolute number of T-all lymph (CD3+), Th lymph (CD4+) and all NK (CD3\ CD16+/CD56), as well as a lower absolute number of Ts (CD8+) and B (CD19+) lymph among the diabetic patients compared to healthy subjects. The Th/Ts ratio in patients with DMT1 (2.02 ± 0.44) and DMT2 (2.36 ± 0.37) is also significantly higher compared to ratio of controls (1.02 ± 0.06). No significant differences in the lymph subpopulations between the two groups with DM.

Conclusions: Changes of lymph types in peripheral blood in diabetic patients demonstrate immune activation and dysregulation among the two types of diabetes.

Keywords: type 1 diabetes mellitus, type 2 diabetes mellitus, flow- cytometry, lymphocytes.