Alterations of antioxidant enzyme activities vitamin A and E status in type 2 diabetic Thai patients

Background and objectives: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is one of the metabolic disorders causing 4.2 million deaths worldwide. There are several controversies and limited information about antioxidant defenses and diabetes. In general, increasing production of free radicals and decreasing in antioxidant defense system were considered to cause high blood glucose levels by resisting of insulin hormone in the pancreas. Some studies reported that high levels of antioxidant enzymes were detected in T2D patients. However, few studies have focused on antioxidant vitamins. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the associations of antioxidant enzyme activity including superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), and vitamin levels consisting of vitamin A and vitamin E in T2D Thai patients. Methods: The T2D (n=48) and nondiabetic participants (n=56) were included in this study. Blood samples of all participants were determined for SOD, CAT, vitamin A and vitamin E levels. Results: The results presented that both SOD and CAT antioxidant enzyme activities in T2D group were significantly lower than the control group [odds ratio (OR), 4.31; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.14-16.30 and OR, 3.57; 95% CI, 1.14-11.18, respectively]. However, there was no significantly statistical difference on vitamin A and vitamin E levels between two groups. Considering of correlation, there was a moderate positive correlation of vitamin A with vitamin E in T2D participants (r = 0.385; p