Diabetes and the endothelium

Abstract

Abnormal endothelial function plays a pivota role in the pathogenesis of diabetic complications. Due to lack of autoregulation of glucose transport in the presence of high extracellular glucose concentrations, intracellular hyperglycaemia induces a series of metabolic changes that ultimately lead to the genesis of both microvascular complications (the hallmark of chronic hyperglycaemic states) and macrovascular damage. In type 2 diabetes, the abnormalities associated with insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome phenotype (such as high blood pressure, dyslipidaemia, abnormal levels of circulating adipokines and free fatty acids e.g.) also contribute to accelerate the endothelial damage sustained as a result of chronic exposure to hyperglycaemia. Only recently was a unifying theory proposed to account for the four major abnormal pathways activated by chronic hyperglycaemia and thought to damage the endothelial cell and to trigger the downstream micro- and macrovascular complications associated with diabetes mellitus. This pathophysiological sequence revolves around the metabolic abnormalities triggered as a result of overproduction of superoxide by the mitochondrial electron transport chain and subsequent inhibition of the key glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase by increased activity of nuclear poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase.