How important is oxidative stress-mediated erythrocyte damage to diabetic complications?

Nowadays it is well established that oxidative stress accompanies diabetes mellitus and may participate in its progress and its assosiated complications. In particular, the prevalence of increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) is thought to contribute to micro and macrovascular complications such as retinopathy, cataracts, atherosclerosis, nephropathy and chronic kidney disease. Based on our experiences, using glutathione peroxidase- 1 knockout (GPx1-/-) mice, we suggest that ROS such as H2O2 play an important role in mediating diabetic complications such as diabetic nephropathy and atherosclerosis (1, 2). In addition, it is becoming increasingly clear that oxidative stress may shorten the life span of ethrythrocytes from diabetic patients and thereby impact on diabetic complications such as nephropathy(3).