Increased Circulating Nitric Oxide in Young Patients With Type 1 Diabetes and Persistent

Hyperglycemia has been causally linked to vascular and glomerular dysfunction by a variety of biochemical mechanisms, including a glucose-dependent abnormal-ity in nitric oxide (NO) production and action. NO is a candidate for mediating hyperfiltration and the in-creased vascular permeability induced by diabetes. Serum nitrite and nitrate (NO2 NO3 –) concentrations were assessed as an index of NO production in 30 ado-lescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes, 15 with and 15 without microalbuminuria (albumin excretion rate [AER] between 20 and 200 µg/min), compared with a well-balanced group of healthy control subjects. In all subjects, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was deter-mined by radionuclide imaging. Our study showed tha