Application of FTIR spectroscopic and mass spectrometric techniques for the investigation of the alteration in erythrocyte contents and phospholipids subspecies of type 2 diabetic patients after oral high fat loading

Abstract

It is well recognized that postprandial dyslipemia is an inherent feature of diabetic dyslipidemia highly prevalent in type 2 diabetic patients (T2DM) even with normal fasting triacylglycerol (TG) level. In addition, several studies also demonstrated that the postprandial TG increase provided adverse affect to many cell types. Since erythrocyte is the major circulating blood cell being easily exposed and susceptible to biochemical changes, thus the aim of the present study was to apply the FTIR spectroscopic and Mass Spectrometric (MS) techniques for investigating the effect of postprandial TG increase on the changes of biochemical contents and phospholipids (PL) subspecies in erythrocytes of T2DM patients compared to healthy control subjects. The study was done in 11 T2DM patients and 10 of age- and sex-matched control volunteers. All subjects received high fat meal contained 40 g fat/m2 body surface area and blood was drawn at before and four hours after the meal. FTTR results revealed that the integrated areas of bands in lipid, protein and sugar-phosphate regions in T2DM group were significantly different from those in control group, especially the olefinic band, which indicates double bonds in lipid structure, remained unchanged relative to fasting state. These findings were in agreement with the results of PL analyzed by LC-MS. Mild alteration of erythrocyte PL molecular species were observed in T2DM group whereas control group showed marked changes particularly the significant increase in total saturated and monounsaturated fatty acid-containing phosphatidylcholine (p<0.05). The results of the present study indicated that there were metabolic abnormalities found in major structural substances of erythrocytes of T2DM patients, especially of the rare remodeling of PL fatty acids during the meal period which was an important process for PL turnover in normal erythrocytes. Impaired alterations occurred in biochemical structure of erythrocytes of T2DM probably explain the less flexibility regularly observed in blood cells of diabetic patients. In conclusion, these findings could be a potential target for future therapeutic treatment in order to correct these abnormalities that would prevent the risks of microvascular complications in T2DM patients.