ABSTRACT
The adhesion molecules are involved in adhesion of leukocytes to endothelial cells and other immune cells. Not only adhesion molecules have membrane form, but they also have soluble form. In this paper, we attempted to investigate the concentration of soluble adhesion molecules in the type 1 diabetic patients [n = 40] and healthy subjects [n = 10]. The results indicated that there was an increase in the concentration of soluble adhesion molecules: sICAM-1, sVCAM-1 and sELAM-1, in the sera of diabetic patients rather than the healthy ones [p = 0/00]. Increased concentration of sVCAM-1 with the insulin injection dose [p = 0.01] and sICAM-1 with duration of disease [p = 0.05] indicated significant reversel linear correlation in the patients groups. Also, sELAM-1 with sVCAM-1 and sICAM-1 showed significant direct linear correlation in the same group [p = 0.01]. Adhesion molecules were determined by the sandwich ELISA principle. One of the most important factors in the development of atherosclerosis is the adhesion of monocytes to endothelial cells. Therefore, in this study, the percentage of expression of membrane form of VCAM-1, not ICAM-1, was increased on 10000 monocytes of diabetic patients type-1 [n=20] in comparison with normal subjects [n = 20, p = 0.05]. The expression tensive of membrane form of cams on the surface of monocytes was performed by flowcytometry technique. We concluded that the increase in sICAM-1, sVCAM-1 specially sELAM-1 and also mVCAM-1 indicated endothelial activation, stimulatability of leukocyte cells and increased interaction to endothelial cells. Although, scientists are not aware about the role of elevated CAMs concentration, it can be suggested that the increasing level of sICAM-1, sVCAM-1, sELAM-1 and mVCAM may reflect cellular expression, function of CAMs in autoimmune disease and also provide a potential therapeutic target for human IDDM