Background: The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance. It is the thickness and stickiness of blood, and a direct measure of the resistance of blood to flow through the vessels. Various factors in the blood have direct or indirect impact on blood viscosity. These hemorheological factors play an important role in the pathogenesis of many diseases. Glucose is one such factor, which, when increased in the blood, causes resistance in the blood flow.
Objective: The present study is aimed to assess the changes in blood viscosity associated with hyperglycemia in rodents.
Methods: Diabetic patients were grouped, depending on the duration of their diabetic status assessed by their increased HbA1c. Similarly rodents were subjected to acute or chronic hyperglycemic conditions in various experiments. In vivo, perfusion study was performed using micro probe in diabetic mice. Flow cytometry was used to assess the expression of VCAM-1 on endothelial surface.
Results: An approximate 40% increase in blood viscosity is observed in individual who were diabetic for the past 15 years than those who were diagnosed just one year back. Similarly such increase in blood viscosity was evident in different experiments of rodents. Our in vivo perfusion study did not showed conclusive finding however long term hyperglycemia can have deleterious effect on flow rate. Vascular pathology which was evident from the data of flow cytometry, where increase in VCAM-1 expression on the endothelial surface was observed in response to glucose and in diabetic mice.
Conclusions: Hyperglycemia implicates the blood viscosity which in turn can have tedious effect on metabolic syndromes thus causing the serious effect in the tissue perfusion of an organs.
Keywords: Glucose; HbA1c; diabetic; hyperglyecemia; metabolic syndrome; vascular pathology; viscosity.