Muscle magnesium and capillary basement membrane thickness in diabetes mellitus.

To evaluate a possible relationship between Mg deficiency and the development of microvascular disease in diabetes mellitus, quadriceps muscle biopsies for estimating Mg content and capillary basement membrane thickness, were studied in 16 patients with type I diabetes. The diabetic individuals had a slightly but significantly reduced muscle Mg content as compared with 13 healthy controls. There was a significant, positive correlation between capillary basement membrane width and age in the diabetic group, but no relationship between membrane thickness and muscle or serum concentration of Mg. However, diabetic patients with retinopathy (n = 6) showed a nonsignificant inverse correlation between basement membrane thickness and Mg parameters. The opposite tendency was found in patients without retinal lesions.