Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Republic of Korea.
Department of Physics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
Sci Rep. 2021 Mar 26;11(1):7007. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-86528-0.
The rheological and physiological properties of red blood cells (RBCs) are affected by many factors in the vascular environment. Among them, membrane fluctuations (MFs), particularly dynamic fluctuations in RBC cell membrane thickness (RBC-MFs), are likely to be altered by the level of glycation of haemoglobin in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). We investigated the associations of RBC-MFs with physiological variables associated with DM and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Forty-one healthy control subjects and 59 patients with DM were enrolled. Five-microliter samples of blood were collected and diluted 400 times. To measure the RBC-MFs, holotomography was used, which non-invasively and precisely analyses the optical characteristics of RBCs. Associations between the RBC-MFs and biochemical parameters related to glucose homeostasis and lipid profiles were investigated. Independent associations of the RBC-MFs with the presence of CVDs were also analysed. RBC-MFs were lower in patients with DM than in healthy participants (61.64 ± 7.49 nm vs 70.65 ± 6.65 nm, P = 1.4 × 10). RBC-MFs correlated modestly with glycated haemoglobin level (ρ = - 0.47) and weakly with age (ρ = - 0.36), duration of diabetes (ρ = - 0.36), fasting plasma glucose level (ρ = - 0.37), and the 10-year Framingham risk score (ρ = - 0.38) (all P < 0.05). Low RBC-MFs were independently associated with the presence of CVDs after adjusting for CVD risk factors. The weak but significant associations of RBC-MFs with cardiometabolic risk factors and CVDs suggest that such deformity of circulating RBCs may be a useful marker of vascular complications of DM.
红细胞（RBC）的流变学和生理特性受血管环境中许多因素的影响。其中，膜波动（MFs），特别是 RBC 细胞膜厚度的动态波动（RBC-MFs），可能会因糖尿病患者血红蛋白的糖化水平而改变。我们研究了 RBC-MFs 与与糖尿病和心血管疾病（CVDs）相关的生理变量之间的关联。共纳入 41 名健康对照者和 59 名糖尿病患者。采集 5μl 血样并稀释 400 倍。为了测量 RBC-MFs，使用全层析术，该技术无创且精确地分析 RBC 的光学特性。研究了 RBC-MFs 与与葡萄糖稳态和脂质谱相关的生化参数之间的关联。还分析了 RBC-MFs 与 CVD 存在的独立关联。糖尿病患者的 RBC-MFs 低于健康参与者（61.64±7.49nm 比 70.65±6.65nm，P=1.4×10）。RBC-MFs 与糖化血红蛋白水平呈中度相关（ρ=-0.47），与年龄（ρ=-0.36）、糖尿病病程（ρ=-0.36）、空腹血糖水平（ρ=-0.37）和 10 年Framingham 风险评分（ρ=-0.38）呈弱相关（均 P<0.05）。在校正 CVD 危险因素后，低 RBC-MFs 与 CVD 的存在独立相关。RBC-MFs 与心血管代谢危险因素和 CVD 之间的弱但显著的关联表明，这种循环 RBC 的变形可能是糖尿病血管并发症的有用标志物。
