Diabet. Med. 29, 726–733 (2012)
Abstract
Objective To determine if ocular and skin autofluorescence, reflecting advanced glycation end‐products, and vascular stiffness correlate in non‐diabetic and Type 1 diabetic subjects and if levels differ by diabetes status.
Research design and methods Patients with Type 1 diabetes (n = 69, 19 with and 50 without vascular complications) and 60 subjects without diabetes (control) had ocular and skin autofluorescence and pulse‐wave analysis performed in the fasted state. Correlations between measures within groups used the Pearson or Spearman correlation‐coefficient and measures between groups were compared by anova.
Results Lens and skin autofluorescence correlated in control (r = 0.58, P = 0.0001) and in Type 1 diabetes (r = 0.53, P = 0.001). Corneal autofluorescence correlated with lens (r = 0.53, r = 0.52, P = 0.0001) and skin autofluorescence (r = 0.34, P = 0.01 and r = 0.49, P = 0.00001) in control and Type 1 diabetes respectively. In Type 1 diabetes, small and large artery elasticity correlated inversely and systemic vascular resistance correlated positively with skin autofluorescence (all P = 0.001), and with lens and corneal autofluorescence (all P < 0.03). In Type 1 diabetes tissue advanced glycation end‐products correlated with C‐reactive protein and inversely with the estimated glucose disposal rate and with circulating advanced glycation end‐product levels. Relative to non‐diabetic subjects, lens, corneal and skin fluorescence were increased (all P < 0.001) and small artery elasticity was decreased in diabetes (P = 0.04). Lens, corneal and skin autofluorescence were greater (all P = 0.0001) in patients with Type 1 diabetes with complications compared to those without complications, but small artery elasticity did not differ significantly.
Conclusions Ocular and skin autofluorescence and vascular stiffness correlate in non‐diabetic and Type 1 diabetes subjects and are increased in Type 1 diabetes. Tissue advanced glycation end‐products correlate with vascular risk factors, including circulating advanced glycation end‐products.