Adenosine deaminase activities and fasting blood glucose in obesity

Abstract

Background: A complex relationship seems to exist between adenosine deaminase (ADA) and insulin in obesity. Through its effect on adenosine, the enzyme can modulate the action of insulin and affect blood glucose while the administration of insulin is said to decrease the activities of the enzyme.
Aim: To investigate the relationship between ADA and fasting blood glucose, (FBG) in obesity and determine whether assay of the enzyme activities could be used to monitor glycaemic control in obesity.
Materials and Methods: Thirty-four obese, otherwise apparently healthy subjects (males=19, females=15) aged 17-70 years and 48 apparently healthy, non-obese individuals (male=34, females=14) aged 21-60 years served as control. Their FBG and serum ADA activity were determined using appropriate methods.
Results: There were significant differences between the BMI, 20.0 ± 3.1kg/m2; FBG, 5.0 ± 0.77mmol/l; ADA, 7.26 ± 0.95U/l of control and corresponding values; 35.05± 4.24kg/ m2; 5.49 ± 1.32 mmol/l and 8.72 ± 1.14 U/l of the test subjects (p=0.0001, 0.001, ›0.05 respectively) The FBG and ADA of the control correlated positively with the BMI (range 21-28) showing metabolic derangement in excess weight. The correlation was completely lost in the obese subjects with BMI in excess of 30 .There was no correlation between ADA and FBG.
Conclusion: The result shows that serum ADA may influence FBG yet it may not serve as an index of glycaemia in obesity. The rise in ADA activities in obesity may be due to insulin resistance or increased secretion of adenosine.

Keywords: Obesity, adenosine deaminase, fasting blood glucose, BMI

Journal of College of Medicine Vol. 11 (2) 2006: 115-119