Paraoxonase activity in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with and without complications

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is a disease of metabolic dysregulation. The current study was undertaken to understand the relationship between the fasting lipid profile and the paraoxonase 1 (PON1) activity in type 2 diabetic patients, with and without complications. Materials and methods: The study group consisted of a total of 155 subjects, which included non-diabetic healthy control subjects (n = 50) and diabetic patients with complications (group I, n = 66) and without complications (group II, n=39). PON1 activity was measured in all the subjects, based on spectrophotometric methods and the fasting lipid profile and the fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels were determined by using a clinical chemistry analyzer, Hitachi 912. Results: FPG (p<0.001) and triacylglycerides (TAG) (p<0.001) were significantly increased and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) (p<0.001) and PON1 (p<0.001) were significantly decreased in group I patients as compared to the normal controls. In group II patients, FPG (p<0.001), TAG (p<0.001) and total cholesterol (TC) (p<0.05) were significantly increased and HDL-C (p<0.05) was significantly decreased as compared to the normal controls. By using Pearson's correlation, HDL-C was found to be positively correlated with PON1 in group I patients (r=0.317, p<0.01).Conclusion: Type 2 DM patients with complications have significantly decreased HDL-C levels and PON1 activity, possibly indicating their decreased biochemical roles in these patients.