Study of advanced glycation endproducts and their receptors in Egyptian type 2 diabetic individuals with peripheral neuropathy

Context
Diabetic neuropathy is one of the commonest long-term complications of diabetes seen in routine healthcare and considered the most common cause of peripheral neuropathy in developed world.
Aim
The aim of our work was to measure advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) and their receptors (RAGEs) in diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), both painful and painless DPN.
Patients and methods
Our study was conducted on 50 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with peripheral neuropathy, divided into two subgroups: the first group included 25 patients with painful DPN and the second group included 25 patients with painless DPN. Moreover, a third group included 20 diabetic patients without peripheral neuropathy, and a fourth group that included 20 healthy participants. All groups were subjected to full history taking and clinical examination, anthropometric parameters, the calculation of neuropathy disability score, and nerve conduction studies (peroneal, sural, and tibial nerves). Laboratory investigations included serum AGEs and RAGEs.
Results
Our study demonstrated that hemoglobin A1c, AGE, and RAGE showed statistically significant difference between the studied groups. Hemoglobin A1c was significantly high in both neuropathic and diabetic groups in comparison with control. Regarding AGE, it was statistically higher in neuropathic group than in control (<0.011). On the contrary, RAGE was significantly higher in both neuropathic and diabetic groups rather than control (<0.02). Although the neuropathic group has higher levels of AGE and RAGE than diabetic group, the difference was statistically nonsignificant. Significant difference was found between studied groups regarding nerve conduction studies of sural and tibial nerves. Statistically significant difference was found in the parameters of nerve conduction studies between neuropathic group and both non-neuropathic diabetic and control groups.
Conclusion
Our study concluded that AGE and RAGE are significantly higher in diabetic patients with neuropathy versus control, with more elevation in neuropathic group than in diabetic without neuropathy.