FULL PAPER Biochemistry Decreased Level of Albumin in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells of Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats

ABSTRACT. We investigated the phenotypic level of albumin in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. A specific reduction of albumin was identified by 2-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. Decreased albumin content was also confirmed by immunoblotting and quantitative real-time PCR. Since albumin is a major and predominant antioxidant in plasma, the PBMC albumin may also contribute to their antioxidant activity. By measuring the amount of H2O2, lipid peroxidation and the redox form of glutathione, it was found that the production of the oxidative stress was elevated in STZ-diabetic rats compared to that of normal control. We suggest, therefore, that decreased albumin content may lead to the decreased antioxidant activity in the PBMC of type 1 diabetic rats. KEY WORDS: albumin, diabetes, expression, oxidative stress, streptozotocin doi: 10.1292/jvms.13-0631; J. Vet. Med. Sci. 76(8): 1087–1092, 2014 Oxidative stress has been suggested to play an important role in the etiology and pathogenesis of the chronic com-plications associated with diabetes [3, 25]. Streptozotocin (STZ) has been used to generate type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) in animal models. In STZ treated rats, it has been suggested that hyperglycemia, auto-oxidation of glycate