Aims: To investigate the impact of increasing accumulation of 3-deoxyglucosone (3-DG) on glucose regulation in non-diabeteic seniors.
Methods: This research is a 2-year prospective follow-up study. We conducted a HPLC assay to determine the plasma 3-DG concentrations of 132 non-diabetic retirees of Suzhou. An oral glucose tolerance test was carried out 2 years after baseline in 16 subjects with continual high plasma 3-DG and 16 control subjects randomly sampled in those with normal plasma 3-DG.
Results: The median plasma 3-DG level of 132 subjects was 43.52 ng/ml (7.89-736.09 ng/ml), of which 47 subjects (36.6%) were beyond 70 ng/ml. A correlation between age and 3-DG was found among people between 50 and 66 years old (r=0.408, P<0.001). The 60-69 years group had a higher 3-DG level than 50-59 years group (P<0.001). Compared with control group, the continual high plasma 3-DG subjects had a higher level of FINs (P<0.05), FBG (P<0.01), HOMA-IR (P<0.001), and a lower level of ISI (P<0.001) and ΔI(60)/ΔG(60) (P<0.05), as well as a higher incidence of impaired glucose regulation (χ(2)=7.814, P<0.05).
Conclusions: There was abnormal elevation of plasma 3-DG in non-diabetic seniors, and the increasing accumulation of plasma 3-DG, which mainly resulted from aging, eventually lead to the impaired glucose regulation, indicating an association of 3-DG with senile diabetes.
Copyright © 2012 Diabetes India. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.