Glyco-oxidation in diabetes and related diseases

Recent evidence has shown that hyperglycemia is able to cause increased production of superoxide on the mitochondrial transport chain, and that this is the key event which activates some events such as increased AGE formation, increased hexosamine and polyol flux, and activation of PKC, all believed to be important for the development of the chronic complications of diabetes, aging and uremia. In this context, non-enzymatic protein glyco-oxidation leads to the formation of a series of products whose intra- and extra-cellular accumulation is of key importance in the pathogenesis of these chronic diseases.

Various spectrometric approaches, such as matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation (MALDI), and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation (ESI) were used.

The latest mass spectrometric approaches have shown their power in proteomics, and we report here some applications of this technique in the study of in vitro and in vivo non-enzymatic protein glyco-oxidation.