[Plasma sulfation and thymidine activities in diabetic children and adolescents]

Sulfation and thymidine activities were measured in 14 insulin-treated diabetic children aged 4 to 16 years. Mean plasma sulfation activity was 0.86 +/- SEM 0.09 U/ml, values being highly significantly negatively correlated with Hb A1c (r = 0.663, p less than 0.01) and with 24 hours glucosuria (r = 0.764, p less than 0.001). Mean plasma thymidine activity was 1.04 +/- SEM 0.09 U/ml) but not with the other parameters. No relationship was found between sulfation and thymidine activities and insulin concentrations in the same samples. Additionally mean plasma transferrin concentration was 2.732 +/- SEM 0.152 U/ml, not significantly different from normal values. These data demonstrate that, in diabetic children treated by insulin, sulfation factor level is closely correlated to the quality of the control of the metabolic disorder. In contrast, thymidine activity of plasma appears to be unaffected by the level of glycemic regulation.