title: Correlation between skin glycosylation and glycaemic control in human diabetes.
abstract: Glycosylation of human skin has been measured by an adaptation of the thiobarbituric acid reaction on samples obtained mainly at autopsy from normal and diabetic subjects. The mean (+/- 1 SD) glycosylation of skin from 33 normal subjects was 0.072 +/- 0.012 mumol fructosamine/100 mg wet weight tissue compared with 0.127 +/- 0.034 mumol (P less than 0.01) in the 10 diabetic subjects. There was a correlation between mean blood glucose levels in the 6 months before death and skin glycosylation in the diabetics, (r = 0.71, P = 0.025), but no correlation between age, sex, or the presence or absence of diabetic complications and skin glycosylation. Skin glycosylation in samples from four non diabetics was increased from 0.075 +/- 0.015 to 0.126 +/- 0.01 mumol fructosamine/100 mg wet weight tissue (P less than 0.01) after incubation with 50 mmol/l glucose solution for 7 d at 37 degrees C.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D002648:Child; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D019270:Fructosamine; D006595:Hexosamines / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D006595:Hexosamines; D019270:Fructosamine