THE RELATION Of SOLUBLE. ADHESION MOLECULES TO MlCR.OALBUMLNURlA lN EG.YPTIAN CHILDREN WITH INSULIN - DEPENDENT DIABETES MELUTUS

Abstract

Patients with diabetes mellitus are at increased risk for the development of vascular complications. Dysfunction of the vascular endothelium is considered an early and important step in the development of diabetic angiopathy. Adhesion molecules have been postulated to play a role in the development of both micro and macrovascular complications. VCAM-1 ICAM-1 and E-selection are of particular interest, because in contrast to others, they are expressed only on activated endothelium. So soluble VCAM-1 level can be taken as an evidence of endothelial activation. The aim of our study is to evaluate the relation of serum adhesion molecule VCAM-1 as an early marker of endothelial dysfunction to microalbuminuria in diabetic children. Thirty patients with type 1 diabetes (18 females and 12 males) and ten controls (6 females and 4 males) were included. Our results showed higher level of VCAM-1 among cases (859.5 ±

830.3 ng/ml) with P value < 0.001. Also the present work disclosed a significant positive correlation between VCAM-1 and NC ratio (P<0.001), even diabetic patients without microalburninuria (25% in our study) showed high level of VCAM-1. Finally we conclude that elevated plasma VCAM-1 in diabetic patients is an indicator of widespread endothelial damage and therefore serves as a risk marker for possibly both the presence and progression of diabetic nephropathu.