Morphological characteristics of dermal diabetic microangiopathy

In an attempt to characterize dermal diabetic microangiopathy, dermal microvessels were qualitatively and quantitatively assessed in 26 healthy control subjects and 47 non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients. Basement membrane thickness (BMT) was significantly greater and the homogeneous BM more frequent in diabetic than in control microvessels. BMT did not change with duration of diabetes but significantly decreased with age and onset age of diabetes, suggesting either a different process of BM thickening with respect to age in diabetic dermal microvessels or the implication of genetic influence on the pathogenesis of dermal diabetic microangiopathy. Endothelial cell hyperplasia was not noted in dermal diabetic microvessels. In view of the fact that the hyperplasia has been reported in other tissues and is closely associated with diabetic microangiopathy, the nature of dermal microvessels or endothelial cells or the milieu around dermal microvessels might be different from other organs.