[The dual (joker) function of glucose: study of its association with aging and glucose metabolism disorders]

Relation was studied between generation of glucose-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS), which appear to be related to DNA damage (genotoxic effect, G), and insulin secretion (endocrine or hormonal effect, H) in women of different ages (one group under 45 and the other one over 45; n=25 and n=14, respectively). The healthy women in those two groups were compared with patients in whom we had found an impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) or type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) (n=17, mean age 57.3 +/- 2.7). The hormonal effect of glucose was more pronounced in the senior group, and especially in group with IGT, if compared with the younger group. Genotoxic effect of glucose was discovered more frequently in the younger group, mainly in smoking women. Comparison of G/H effects showed that the evaluation of glucose-induced genotoxity (GIGT) was more frequent in the IGT group than in the senior group (p < 0.05). No difference was detected in the GIGT frequency values in the two healthy groups. It may therefore be concluded that GIGT did not increase within the ambit of ageing studied in this work, while it increased in the IGT group. It is possible that the high frequency of the G effect in the IGT group could be a marker of oxidative stress and/or predisposition to complications in DM. The dual (joker) function of glucose and the prevalence of G effects over H effects may be of use in choosing the method of correction for each particular case.