Diabetes mellitus: The linkage between oxidative stress, inflammation, hypercoagulability and vascular complications

Vascular complications are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus. These vascular abnormalities result of a chronic hyperglycemic state, which leads to an increase in oxidative stress and inflammatory responses.

This review addresses the relationships among endothelial dysfunction, hypercoagulability and inflammation and their biomarkers in the development of vascular complications in type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, and hypercoagulability are correlated to each other, playing an important role in the development of vascular complications in diabetic patients. Moreover, it has been observed that several endothelial, inflammatory and pro-coagulant biomarkers, such as VWF, IL-6, TNF-α, D-dimer and PAI-1, are increased in diabetic patients who have microvascular and macrovascular complications, including nephropathy or cardiovascular disease.

It is promising the clinical and laboratory use of endothelial, inflammatory and pro-coagulant biomarkers for predicting the risk of cardiovascular and renal complications in diabetic patients and for monitoring these patients.