NCL Researchers Suggests Albumin As A Better Indicator Of Diabetes
Researchers at National Chemical Laboratory – NCL, Pune based on their new research findings have suggested that a better diagnostic approach for testing diabetes will be by measuring levels of free albumin and albumin attached to glucose molecules in the blood.
Till date for diabetes diagnosis, glycated hemoglobin (percentage of glucose bound to hemoglobin) level in the measured which the WHO has also prescribed. But the tests results for fasting blood sugar levels are seen to vary drastically due to various external factors like time of collection, stress levels, and diet.
NCL researchers via their experiment showed that low albumin level in the blood leads to glycation of both albumin and hemoglobin. With a decrease in albumin levels or if it gets saturated with bound glucose, proteins like hemoglobin are exposed to glucose and their glycation increases. Thus for predicting the onset of diabetes in patients, levels of albumin and glycated albumin can also be measured.
While speaking to India Science Wire, “Levels of glycated hemoglobin in blood are influenced by many factors like anemia, iron deficiency, pregnancy. The current analytical methods do not accurately measure glycated hemoglobin,” explained Dr. Mahesh Kulkarni, author of the research study”.
Dr. Kulkarni
also added that their study provided them with an insight into how albumin levels influence glycated hemoglobin. He said that for better diagnosis and management of diabetes both glycated albumin levels and glycated hemoglobin levels. His team would also be interested to measure albumin and glycated albumin levels in the large diabetic cohort to validate their study results.In this research, Dr. Mahesh Kulkarni was accompanied by Mashanipalya G. Jagadeeshaprasad & Vinashya Venkatasubramani from NCL Pune teamed with Ambika G. Unnikrishnan from Chellaram Diabetes Institute, Pune.
(The Hindu BusinessLine)
