Lactate dehydrogenase activity of platelets in diabetes mellitus

Lactate dehydrogenase (L-lactate : NAD+ oxidoreductase, EC 1.1.1.27) activity has been measured on the subpopulations of platelets obtained from blood of diabetic patients. Small, but not large platelets show a lactate dehydrogenase activity higher than that of controls. Moreover, a positive statistically significant correlation was found between the activity of small platelets and the percent of glycated haemoglobin, while no correlation was obtained in the case of large platelets. Since we previously demonstrated that lactate dehydrogenase activity of small platelets is exceedingly high in some clinical and experimental conditions, our results not only confirm the involvement of platelets in diabetes but provide more evidence in support of our previous hypothesis of a relationship between lactate dehydrogenase and in-vivo platelet activation.