Assessment of the redox status in patients with metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes reveals great variations

The aim of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of a new redox status marker, the static oxidation reduction potential (sORP), for assessing oxidative stress in 75 patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). A total of 35 normal subjects were used as the controls. Moreover, conventional markers of oxidative stress were assessed, such as thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), protein carbonyls, the total antioxidant capacity in plasma, glutathione (GSH) levels and catalase (CAT) activity in erythrocytes. The results revealed that sORP was significantly higher (by 13.4%) in the patients with MetS and T2D compared to the controls, indicating an increase in oxidative stress. This finding was also supported by the significantly lower levels (by 27.7%) of GSH and the higher levels (by 23.3%) of CAT activity in the patients with MetS and T2D compared to the controls. Moreover, our results indicated a great variation in oxidative stress markers between the different patients with MetS and T2D, particarly as regards the GSH levels. Thus, the patients with MetS and T2D were divided into 2 subgroups, one with low GSH levels (n=31; GSH <3 µmol/g Hb) and another with high GSH levels (n=35; GSH >4 µmol/g Hb). The comparison of the markers between the 2 subgroups indicated that in the low GSH group, the GSH levels were significantly lower (by 51.7 and 52.9%) than those in the high GSH group and the controls, respectively. Furthermore, sORP in the low GSH group was significantly higher (by 8.1%) compared to the high GSH group, suggesting its sensitivity for assessing oxidative stress in patients wtih MetS and T2D. Moreover, this variation in oxidative stress levels between the different patients with T2D suggests that the assessment of the redox status may be important in prediabetic conditions, since there is evidence indicating that differences in the redox status in pre-diabetes may result in different outcomes.