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. 2025 Aug 18;15(1):30232.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-15481-z.

Non-invasive evaluation of advanced glycation end products in hair as early markers of diabetes and aging

Sayuri Kato  1 , You Satoh  2 , Ayumi Okamoto  3 , Ryoji Nagai  4   5   6   7
Affiliations
Free article

Non-invasive evaluation of advanced glycation end products in hair as early markers of diabetes and aging

Sayuri Kato et al. Sci Rep. .
Free article

Abstract

Continuous metabolic monitoring is essential for assessing lifestyle-related disease risks. Hair, an easily accessible tissue, allows for long-term metabolic evaluation, with glycated proteins linked to diabetic complications found in hair. We established a mass spectrometry system to detect advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in hair samples from humans and rats, assessing their variations with aging and disease. Hair samples were hydrolyzed and processed using a cation-exchange column for mass spectrometric analysis. Regardless of temperature variations, the levels of AGEs [Nε-(carboxymethyl)lysine (CML), and methylglyoxal-derived hydroimidazolone-1 (MG-H1)] in human hair remained stable for one week. Age and CML levels, or AGEs z-scores combined with CML and CEL levels in human hair samples, were positively correlated. In streptozotocin-induced insulin-deficient diabetic model (DM) rats, hair CEL and MG-H1 levels were higher than in non-diabetic rats. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed an area under the curve of 1 for hair CEL and MG-H1 levels. Serum and hair CML levels were positively correlated. Hair AGE levels vary more between DM and non-DM rats than serum AGE levels. They remain stable under heat treatment and correlate with age, indicating that hair analysis is an effective non-invasive method for assessing metabolic fluctuations.

Keywords: Advanced glycation end products; Diabetes; Hair; Mass spectrometry; Non-invasive method.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical standards: This study adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki (amended at the 2013 WMA Fortaleza Meeting) and followed the Ethical Guidelines for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (notified by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology and the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare). This study was conducted with the deliberation and approval of the Ethics Review Committee of Living Appliances and Solutions Company, Panasonic Corporation (Approval No.: 20220617-A01) for the project titled “AGEs research for the development of a new value-adding facial device.”

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