Correlation between skin glycosylation and glycaemic control in human diabetes

Glycosylation of human skin has been measured by an adaptation of the thiobarbituric acid reaction on samples obtained mainly at autopsy from normal and diabetic subjects. The mean (+/- 1 SD) glycosylation of skin from 33 normal subjects was 0.072 +/- 0.012 mumol fructosamine/100 mg wet weight tissue compared with 0.127 +/- 0.034 mumol (P less than 0.01) in the 10 diabetic subjects. There was a correlation between mean blood glucose levels in the 6 months before death and skin glycosylation in the diabetics, (r = 0.71, P = 0.025), but no correlation between age, sex, or the presence or absence of diabetic complications and skin glycosylation. Skin glycosylation in samples from four non diabetics was increased from 0.075 +/- 0.015 to 0.126 +/- 0.01 mumol fructosamine/100 mg wet weight tissue (P less than 0.01) after incubation with 50 mmol/l glucose solution for 7 d at 37 degrees C.