Advanced Glycation End Products in Patients with Leukoaraiosis
Abstract
Objective: To investigate the relationship between leukoaraiosis and Advanced glycation end products (AGEs).
Background: Accumulation of AGEs in the skin, serum, and other specimens obtained from diabetic patients has been linked to the progression of microvascular complications. Moreover, tissue accumulation of the AGEs can be measured by skin autofluorescence.
Methods: 220 healthy Chinese adults were studied. The screening system included medical and neurological examination, head MRI scans, and blood tests. Leukoaraiosis was diagnosed with T1-weighted, T2weighted, and FLAIR images of MRI. 49 cases were leukoaraiosis without diabetes mellitus; 52 cases were leukoaraiosis with diabetes mellitus. Results: Skin AGE levels in patients with leukoaraiosis and diabetes mellitus were significantly increased compared with the control group (2.11±0.12, 2.17±0.176, 2.07±0.129 and 1.918±0.127, respectively, p<0.01). However, there was no significant difference in AGEs between the leukoaraiosis and the diabetes mellitus control. Conclusions: The measurement of skin autofluorescence is a non-invasive and convenient method for AGEs assessment. The result of this study suggested that AGEs can be one of the biomarkers for predicting leukoaraiosis.
