RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Effects of hyperglycaemia and sorbitol accumulation on erythrocyte deformability in diabetes mellitus.
JF Journal of Clinical Pathology
JO J Clin Pathol
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Association of Clinical Pathologists
SP 722
OP 727
DO 10.1136/jcp.39.7.722
VO 39
IS 7
A1 D Bareford
A1 P E Jennings
A1 P C Stone
A1 S Baar
A1 A H Barnett
A1 J Stuart
YR 1986
UL http://jcp.bmj.com/content/39/7/722.abstract
AB Erythrocyte deformability was studied in a total of 83 poorly controlled diabetics (mean blood glucose 12.2 mmol/l) who were divided into three groups, each with matched healthy controls. There was no appreciable difference between diabetics and matched controls regarding the filtration of erythrocytes through 3 micron diameter straight channel pores (25 diabetics) or tortuous channel pores (28 diabetics), or for the measurement of erythrocyte elongation over a range of osmolalities in the Ektacytometer (30 diabetics). When erythrocytes from 17 additional diabetics and 17 healthy controls were incubated for two hours at 37 degrees C in hyperglycaemic (50 mmol glucose/l) buffer, however, there was a considerable reduction in erythrocyte filterability for both diabetics and controls in parallel with an increase in erythrocyte sorbitol concentration. This loss of filterability was prevented by the addition of an aldose reductase inhibitor (Sorbinil). High glucose concentrations (congruent to 50 mmol/l) impair the filterability of erythrocytes through 3 micron pores, and the intracellular accumulation of sorbitol in poorly controlled outpatients is therefore unlikely to have a major adverse effect on erythrocyte rheology in diabetes mellitus.