Serum Extracellular Vesicle Arginase 1 Measured In T2DM

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has become one of the most pressing and prevalent epidemics in the last few decades and is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases with high mortality and disability.

Emerging evidence suggests that specific molecules derived from body fluids such as urine and blood are also closely associated with the presence of diabetes or diabetes-related diseases. As a new type of biomarker resource, extracellular vesicles (EVs) presented in accessible biofluids have garnered considerable attention due to their high stability in body fluids.

Medical Scientists at the Beijing Anzhen Hospital (Beijing, China) and their colleagues performed a cross-sectional study in 103 Chinese between the age of 32 and 89, including 73 T2DM patients and 30 non-T2DM. An overnight fasting blood sample was drawn from each participant into a serum collection tube. Serum triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and other serum biochemical indexes were measured by biochemical analyzer (Hitachi 7600, Tokyo, Japan).

After centrifugation processing, the number and size of EVs was measured by Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis with a Nanosight NS300 instrument (Malvern, UK). Serum Extracellular Vesicle Arginase 1 (EV-derived ARG 1) concentration was measured using Human Arginase 1 Simplestep ELISA Kit (Abcam, Inc., Burlingame, CA, USA), a highly sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. The OD value at 450 nm was recorded by an EnSpire microplate reader (Perkin Elmer Singapore Pte. Ltd., Singapore). Chemiluminescence signals from Western Blotting were visualized using supersensitive chemiluminescent substrates (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) and detected by an imaging system (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA, USA).

The investigators reported that serum EV-derived ARG 1 levels were significantly higher in T2DM patients compared with non-T2DM patients. Correlation analysis revealed that serum EV-derived ARG 1 levels were positively associated with fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c). Serum EV-derived ARG 1 levels were significantly associated with T2DM, especially in the subgroup of T2DM for more than 10 years (Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.651), after adjusting for confounding factors.

The authors concluded that their study there was a significant association between serum EV-derived ARG 1 levels and the presence and duration of T2DM. It would help explain in part that more vascular diseases occur in T2DM compared to non-T2DM. The study was published on March 11, 2022 in the journal BMC Endocrine Disorders.

Related Links:
Beijing Anzhen Hospital 
Hitachi 
Nanosight 
Abcam 
Perkin Elmer Singapore 
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Bio-Rad