Background and Aims

Skin autofluorescence (SAF) indicates a content of advanced glycation end products and oxidation state of tissues. The aim was to assess a correlation between SAF level, measured with fluorescence spectrometry, and glucose metabolism parameters in patients with diabetes mellitus type 1 and type 2 and in healthy participants.

Methods

We involved 53 healthy participants (age range 20-63 years), 53 type 1 diabetic patients (18-42 years), 23 type 2 diabetic patients (34-66 years). We did not include patients with skin diseases, severe renal dysfunction, severe concomitant diseases. Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) was measured (Bio-Rad, USA), capillary blood glucose level was assessed 9 times a day, glycemic variability parameters were calculated. SAF was measured with fluorescence–reflection multichannel fiber spectrometer FOS-1. Measurements were carried out at 10 points on the skin of forearms, the mean value was calculated. A statistic analysis was performed by Statistica 7.0 Software Package (StatSoft. Inc., USA). Correlation analysis was performed with Spearman test.

Results

We found a statistically significant correlation between SAF level and age in the control group (R=0.55; p<0.05), a significant correlation between SAF level and HbA1c level in type 1 diabetes group (R=0.40; p<0.05). No significant correlations were revealed in type 2 diabetes group.

Conclusions

We found a positive correlation between SAF intensity and HbA1c level, no correlations with glycemic variability parameters in young type 1 diabetic patients. The measurement of SAF with the spectrometer FOS-1 can be used for additional evaluation of diabetes complications risks.

Additional information: this research is supported by Russian Science Foundation (grant No. 17-75-30052).