Glucose Instability Is Associated With a High Level of Circulating P-Selectin
- Elisabetia Brun, MD ,
- Giacomo Zoppini, MD ,
- Cristina Zamboni, MD ,
- Enzo Bonora, MD and
- Michele Muggeo, MD
- Division of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
We have previously shown that glycemic instability, as measured by the coefficient of variation for fasting plasma glucose (CV-FPG), is an independent predictor of cardiovascular mortality in type 2 diabetes (1,2). The mechanisms, if any, underlying the association between long-term plasma glucose instability and vascular diseases are difficult to explain.
In vitro studies with retinal capillary pericytes have shown that rapid glucose fluctuations in the culture medium induced cellular damage and death by apoptosis (3). Moreover, tubulointerstitial cells exposed to intermittent high glucose concentrations underwent changes in cellular growth, collagen synthesis, and cytokine secretion that were more severe than those observed in cells exposed to stable high-glucose concentrations (4). These data extrapolated …
