Polymorphonuclear neutrophils adherence, superoxide anion (O2-) production and HBA1 level in diabetic patients

It was established that metabolic disturbances accompanying the impairment of diabetes control induced polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) activation. Therefore, we evaluated the influence of diabetes control, measured as HbA1, level on superoxide anions production and neutrophils adherence to foreign surface. Twenty patients with insulin-dependent or non-insulin-dependent diabetes being in different state of metabolic control were studied. It was revealed that PMN from diabetics demonstrated significantly increased unstimulated superoxide anion production (11.07 +/- 1.25 vs. 4.15 +/- 1.24 nmol O2-/10(6) PMN/10 min). Stimulated O2- production did not reach the same levels as controls (21.80 +/- 1.34 vs. 23.67 +/- 4.36 nmol O2-/10(6) PMN/10 min). There were highly significant correlations between unstimulated O2- production and HbA1, levels (r = 0.86). Adherence of diabetic PMN suspended in autologous plasma was significantly increased in comparison to controls (12.76 +/- 1.20 vs. 6.04 +/- 1.99 cells/mm2). However, these data did not correlate with HbA1 level (r = 0.06). In conclusion our results seems to indicate that metabolic control of diabetes influence PMN function.