Extracellular Superoxide Dismutase (EC.SOD) Evaluation in Type 1 and 2 Diabetes Mellitus Subjects in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Background: Extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD) is a secretary glycoprotein located in blood vessel walls at high levels and may be important in the antioxidant capability of vascular walls. Diabetes mellitus, a group of metabolic disorder of carbohydrate metabolism in which glucose is underutilized, producing hyperglycaemia is characterized by absolute or relative deficiency in insulin secretion, action or both. Oxidative stress which occurs due to over increase in production of free radicals or impaired compensatory response to antioxidant defence system has been assumed to be involved in the pathogenesis of some diabetic complications. The study compared the level of this enzyme in type 1 and 2 of chronic diabetes patients and determined its significance difference from diabetic subjects that have not suffered the disease for up to ten years. Method: A total of 468 subjects were used for this study. This comprised of 90 diabetic subjects of type 1, 110 of type 2 and 110 apparently healthy subjects that never had hyperglycaemia and with HBAic value of less than 6.0%. The study also included 68 type 1 and 90 type 2 diabetic patients that have suffered the disease for less than 10 years. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method was used for this study. Result: The result showed a mean ±S.D of EC-SOD level of 24.95 ± 9.71ng/ml and 31.05 ± 12.21ng/ml for chronic diabetic type 1 and type 2 respectively. A mean ±S.D of EC-SOD level of 39.44 ± 10.50ng/ml, 44.10 ± 12.38ng/ml for diabetic type 1 and type 2 subjects respectively that have suffered the disease for less than 10 years. An EC-SOD level of 63.78 ± 28.21 was gotten for non-diabetic subjects. From the result, there was no statistical difference (P>0.005) between the levels of the enzyme in type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients, but significantly differ (P<0.005) from the values obtained for non diabetic subjects at 95% confidence level. Statistical difference also exists at this confidence level between the chronic and non chronic sufferers of this disease. Keywords: Diabetic mellitus, Hyperglycaemia, Superoxide dismutase, Chronic, Oxidative stress, Carbohydrate metabolis