Short Term Glucose Load and Serum Adenosine Deaminase Activity in Diabetic Nigerians

Abstract

Adenosine deaminase (ADA), an enzyme that is involved in nucleic acid metabolism has been reported to show raised serum activity in diabetic patients. As part of a preliminary study to assess ADA activity in diabetic and non-diabetic Nigerians, ADA was measured in fasting and 2 hour post-prandial (PP) sera from the subjects using a simple indophenol colorimetric method. Glucose and ADA levels were measured in fasting and two hour post glucose load samples from 19 subjects referred to the laboratory for oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). The same measurements were carried out on 35 known diabetic patients referred to the laboratory for fasting and 2 hour PP tests. Fasting ADA and glucose levels were also measured in 50 control subjects. The mean fasting ADA value (21.5 + 1.7 IU/L) in the known diabetic patients was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than in the control subjects (13.0 + 0.14 IU/L). There was no significant difference in the mean value for fasting ADA (21.5 + 1.7 IU/L) and 2 hour PP ADA of 22.2 + 1.7 IU/L (P > 0.005) in the known diabetic patients. Four of the 19 subjects who came for OGTT were confirmed to have diabetes mellitus with mean fasting glucose value of 13.6 + 2.6 mmol/L and 2 hour value of 23.7 + 3.0 mmol/L. The 2 hour PP value was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than that of fasting. The mean fasting and 2 hour ADA values for the four subjects were 20.0 + 3.0 IU/L and 21.1 + 3.6 IU/L respectively (P > 0.05). The mean values of fasting glucose (4.1 + 0.5 mmol/L) and ADA (13.3 + 0.5 IU/L) of the remaining 15 subjects who were not confirmed to be diabetic after the OGTT had mean 2 hour glucose value of 6.5 + 0.3 mmol/L. The mean fasting values for glucose and ADA compared to 2 hour values were not significantly different in these subjects (P > 0.05). It can be concluded from these preliminary observations that meal or oral glucose load has no significant effect on serum ADA activity.

Keywords: Adenosine deaminase, Diabetes mellitus, Glucose-load

Journal of Medical Laboratory Sciences Vol. 14 (1) 2005: pp. 32-36