Diabetes is a vascular disease: the role of endothelial dysfunction in pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease in diabetes.

Diabetes is a vascular disease. Endothelial dysfunction is the initial process in vascular manifestations of diabetes mellitus (DM). There are multiple pathways involved in the pathophysiologic process related to endothelial dysfunction in DM. Most of these abnormalities occur secondary to insulin resistance. In this article the role of insulin, glucose,dyslipidemia, oxidative stress and various cellular mechanisms related to endothelial dys-function in diabetes are discussed in detail.