Prevalence of antiphospholipid antibodies is not different in Chilean diabetic patients and normal individuals Iva ´n G. Palomo a , Vero ´nica E. Mujica b , Marcelo L. Alarco ´n a , Jaime G. Pereira c , Marcela R. Va ´squez a, * a Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Immunohematology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad de Talca, Casilla N 8 747, Talca, Chile b Servicio de Medicina (Medical Service), Hospital Regional de Talca, Talca, Chile c Department of Hematology-Oncology, School of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Cato ´lica de Chile, Santiago, Chile Received 16 July 2003; received in revised form 3 September 2004; accepted 21 September 2004 Abstract Diabetes mellitus (DM) is complicated by vascular and neurological events. Antiphospholipid (aPL) antibodies have already been associated with many clinical conditions, including venous and arterial thrombosis, as well as recurrent fetal loss. However, a significant association between aPL antibodies and DM has not been widely reported yet. In the present study, we investigated the prevalence of aPL antibodies in diabetic patients. This study included 100 Chilean diabetic patients (67 of them with some complications and 33 without complications; 28 with Type 1 and 72 with Type 2 DM) and 100 healthy blood donor controls. Each sample was analyzed for IgG, IgM and IgA anticardiolipin (aCL), anti-h 2 glycoprotein I (anti-h 2 GPI), antiprothrombin (aPT) antibodies, and lupus anticoagulant (LA). Fourteen out of 100 (14%) diabetic patients presented some type of aPL antibodies. Four patients were positive for aCL antibodies, two for anti-h 2 GPI antibodies, and nine for aPT antibodies. All patients were LA negative. The incidence of different isotypes was similar in each of the aPL antibodies studied, and their activities were low. No significant correlation was observed between aPL antibodies and vascular complications. D 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Antiphospholipid antibodies; Diabetes mellitus 1. Introduction Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM), especially those who are insulin dependent, are well known to be at higher risk for vascular diseases, being the vascular endothelium dysfunction an early step in the development of diabetic complications and probably implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy (Ciarla et al., 2001; Giusti et al., 2000). Vascular complications are the main cause of morbidity in these patients (Galtier-Dereure et al., 1998). Antiphospholipid (aPL) antibodies are a heterogeneous group of antibodies associated with venous and arterial thrombosis and other complications (Gargiulo et al., 1999). Galtier-Dereure et al. (1998) determined the prevalence of aPL antibodies in uncomplicated and complicated DM. They found that uncomplicated diabetes was not associated with aPL antibodies, but there was a higher prevalence of these antibodies in diabetic patients with macroangiopathy (32.4%) or nephropathy (32.1%), suggesting a potential role of aPL antibodies in the progression of vascular complica- tions in DM. Gargiulo et al. (1999) detected an increased incidence of aPL antibodies in diabetic patients compared with the control group. However, even if risk factors for the diabetic vascular disease remain incompletely elucidated, it is now evident that other factors, different from hyper- glycaemia, may contribute to the development of vascu- lopathy (Best, Anyadike, & Bumpers, 2000; Galtier-Dereure et al., 1998). Since type 1 DM is an autoimmune disease that selectively destroys insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cells, aPL antibodies could be implicated in the pathophysiology of this vascular complications. However, this association 1056-8727/05/$ – see front matter D 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jdiacomp.2004.09.004 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +56 71 200494; fax: +56 71 200488. E-mail address: mvasquro@utalca.cl (M.R. Va ´squez). Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications 19 (2005) 133 – 137