Original Article: Correlation of Lipid Peroxidation with Glycated Haemoglobin Levels in Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract: Reactive oxygen species are crucial to normal biolo-gical processes; they are potentially dangerous and are com-monly referred to as prooxidants. The reactive oxygen interme-diates can cause direct cellular injury by including lipid and protein peroxidation and damage to nucleic acid. The polyun-saturated fatty acids present in the cells are vulnerable to free radicals causing lipid peroxidation. Determination of Malondi-aldehyde (MDA) by using thiobarbituric acid is used as an in-dex of the extent of lipid peroxidation. This study was done to know if lipid peroxidation correlated with the glycated haemo-globin levels. Diabetic status was assessed by estimating fasting blood sugar and glycated haemoglobin level while oxidant stress was evaluated by estimating erythrocyte MDA levels. The lipid peroxidation in erythrocyte lysates was significantly increased in diabetic individuals compared to controls (p<0.001). The result of this study indicates that in diabetic in-dividuals are more prone to oxidative stress and glycated haemoglobin is a marker in evaluating the long term glycemic status in diabetic individuals. Key Words: Oxidative stress; Glycated haemoglobin; Lipid peroxidation; Malondialdehyd