A correlation study of iodine uptake and antioxidant status in diabetic patients

Iodine is an essential component of the thyroid hormones, which are necessary for normal growth, development and metabolism during gestation, infancy and throughout life. Iodination is the process of substitution or addition of iodine atoms on organic compounds. The present study is done to find the correlation between the iodine uptake and the antioxidant levels namely protein thiols. The study was carried out on 50 cases of known diabetes mellitus with mean fasting blood glucose level of 324 mg/dl and 50 healthy controls with mean fasting blood glucose level of 78 mg/dl. The modified version of the colorimetric method was employed for the assay of iodine uptake and antioxidant levels were measured by spectrophotometric methods. The datas were analysed using SPSS version 10. Serum total iodine uptake was decreased significantly in cases as compared to healthy controls (p <0.01). The levels of protein thiols were decreased in cases when compared to healthy controls but not significantly. Serum total iodine uptake correlated positively with protein thiol levels (r=0.602, p<0.01). The results of our study indicates that there is decreased iodine uptake by diabetic serum and the iodine uptake decreases proportionately with the decrease in the antioxidant levels namely protein thiols. The cause for decreased iodine uptake may be related to the decrease in thiol groups which are utilized to neutralize the reactive oxygen species that are formed during oxidative stress.