The analysis of avian plasma for glycated serum albumin

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Plasma glucose concentrations (Pglu) in humans are regulated at 80–100mg%. If levels reach 150mg% for 4–6 weeks, the symptoms of Type 2 diabetes appear due to the glycation of serum albumin and the subsequent formation of advanced glycation end‐products (AGEs). AGEs bind to vascular tissues leading to the pathologies associated with Type 2 diabetes. In contrast to humans, the Pglu of birds range from 350–750mg% and from what is observed, birds do not suffer the pathologies of Type 2 diabetes. To gain an understanding of this discrepancy, in vitro experiments were conducted to analyze the reaction between glucose and avian serum albumin (ASA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) which was used as a control. Glycated ASA and BSA were separated using boronate affinity columns and percent glycation was quantified using the Bradford protein assay. Results indicate that ASA is glycated to a lesser degree than BSA when exposed to varying concentrations of glucose. After 16 weeks of in vitro incubation with 500mM glucose, 37.8 ± 0.76% of BSA was glycated compared to 19.7 ± 1.06% for CSA, a highly significant difference (P<0.05). Additionally, glycation appeared to be glucose dependent, where the percent glycation at week 16 was significantly higher than the control solutions for both BSA (P<0.001) and CSA (P<0.05, P<0.001 and P<0.001 respectively for the glucose concentrations of 38.8mM, 100mM and 500mM).