Selenium levels and Glutathione peroxidase activity in the plasma of patients with type II diabetes mellitus

Similarly, it is well known that patients with diabetes who exhibit poor control of blood glucose show a decreased total antioxidant activity. Thus, we evaluated the enzymatic activity of GPx in diabetic and healthy individuals, using the Paglia and Valentine enzymatic method, observing a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the three groups of assayed patients (healthy (n = 24): 0.61 ± 0.11 U/ml, controlled diabetic (n = 38): 0.40 ± 0.12 U/ml and non-controlled diabetic patients (n = 40): 0.32 ± 0.09 U/ml). Our results show that hyperglycemia induces oxidative stress in diabetic patients compared with healthy controls. What is more, glycation of GPx experiments demonstrated that it is the degree of glycation of the selenoenzyme (another species of the Se protein) what actually modulates its eventual activity against ROS in type II diabetes mellitus patients.