Expression of Apoptosis Markers in Type 2 Diabetes : Skin Microvasculature of Patients with Diabetes Mellitus Type 2

The microvascular changes in diabetes are directly related to the long term complications of diabetes. Therefore, this research is proposed to study the relationship between the histopathological parameters such as apoptotic markers namely Bax (pro- apoptotic marker) and Bcl-2 (anti-apoptotic maker) and morphology of microvasculature which are endothelial cell thickness (ECT), endothelial cell counting (ECC) and blood vessel counting (BVC).A cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2003 to November 2005. Forty one type 2 diabetes patients and 36 non diabetes (control) patients (20 to 70 years old) from Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) were included in this study.A new finding is that ECT, ECC and BVC are indicative of blood vessel abnormality in diabetic patients. These microvasculatures in diabetes patients were also associated with biochemical changes such as in FPG and HbA1c, while the lipid profile fraction associations were inconsistent.