Chapter 6 - Immune response and biochemical connection in diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a metabolic condition with rising blood glucose levels due to insufficient insulin synthesis by pancreatic β-cell in the body—recently a serious lifestyle disease across the world. Uncontrolled high blood glucose level for a longer time causes mild inflammation and produces inflammatory mediators through adipocytes and macrophages, which further damage pancreatic cells, cause insufficient insulin production, and the onset of diabetes mellitus. The prolonged condition of DM generates high reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reduces glutathione (GSH) production in patients with altered cytokine synthesis, leading to altered immune response and increasing the risk of susceptibility to infections. Patients with DM have a high tendency to get more often infected than nondiabetic ones. This chapter demonstrates a brief overview of molecular mechanisms causing altered immune responses due to DM and helps understand how immune dysfunction occurs due to hyperglycemia, which may help in the treatment and prevention of DM and also to control the rate of infection in the patients.