Presented at the 2012 AAPM Annual Meeting « Back

Changes Present in the Genetic Level in Painful Diabetic Neuropathy

Nalini Vadivelu, MD, nalini.vadivelu@yale.edu¹, Aravinth Reddy, MD², Sreekumar Kunnumpurath, MBBS FRCA³, Jones Kurian, MD MBBS FRCA MRCP⁴, Radha Saraswathy, PhD⁵, (1) Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, (2) Vellore Diabetic Center, Vellore, Tamil Nadu State, India, (3) Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, Carshalton, Surrey, United Kingdom, (4) East Surrey Hospital, Redhill, Redhill, United Kingdom, (5) VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

It is estimated that painful diabetic neuropathy is present in 13–26% of diabetic patients. Symptoms of painful diabetic neuropathy can last for several years and can impair the quality of life significantly(1) (2). This study was performed to determine the presence of chromosomal aberrations in painful diabetic neuropathy as a first step to study the possibility of gene therapy to treat this disease. Methods: The frequency of chromosomal aberrations were studied in 24 patients with painful diabetic neuropathy and compared with those found in 26 patients with diabetic neuropathy without pain. Chromosome preparations were obtained from phytohemagglutinin (PHA) stimulated peripheral blood lymphocytes. Well-spread metaphases were photographed under oil immersion objective lenses (100X) of a Leica DM2000 microscope with Metasystems camera and the photomicrographs of the banded spreads were karyotyped using automatic IKaros software (Metasystems from Altlussheim, Germany). Results: The frequency of chromosomal aberrations was 0.062 _+ 0.038 per cell in diabetic neuropathy patients without pain as compared to 0.11 _+0.038 per cell in patients with painful diabetic neuropathy. There was significant increase in chromosomal aberrations in patients p<0.001 with painful diabetic neuropathy as compared to patients with diabetic neuropathy without pain Conclusion: This study shows that changes at the genetic level exist in patients with painful diabetic neuropathy. More research needs to be done to evaluate if gene therapy by repairing dysfunctional genes might be useful for the treatment painful diabetic neuropathy References: 1)1.Benbow SJ, Wallymahmed ME, MacFarlane IA: Diabetic peripheral neuropathy and quality of life. Q J Med 91:733–737, 1998 2)2.Daousi C, MacFarlane IA, Woodward A, Nurmikko TJ, Bundred PE, Benbow SJ. Chronic painful peripheral neuropathy in an urban community: a controlled comparison of people with and without diabetes. Diabet Med 2004;21:976–982.

Funding: None