INVESTIGATION OF THE ROLE OF ICAM-1 E469K AND E-SELECTIN S128R POLYMORPHISMS IN DIABETIC NEUROPATHY

Introduction: Diabetic peripheral neuropathy is one of the commonest complications of diabetes. The soluble adhesion molecules, E-selectin and intracellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-are indicators for endothelial activation. Recent studies demonstrated that these molecules are increased in patients with diabetes and diabetes-related complications. The present study was designed to investigate the possible association of two mutations, S128R in E-selectin and K469E in ICAM-1 with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in Turkish population. Materials and methods: One hundred thirty eight patients with DPN and 138 non-diabetic control subjects by similar age were enrolled in the study. Genotyping was done by polymerase chain reaction- restriction fragment length polymorphism. Results: No significant differences were found in the genotype and allele frequencies of ICAM E469K polymorphism between the groups of DPN patients and non-diabetic control subjects. There was also no statistically significant difference for E-selectin S128R polymorphism between DPN patients and non-diabetic control subjects. Conclusions: We firstly investigated the involvement ICAM-1 and E-selectin gene variants in development of DPN. These results suggested that the ICAM-1 E469K and S128R polymorphisms are not associated with susceptibility to DPN in Turkish population. Further studies in larger series and in different ethnic populations should be carried out to validate our findings.