Evaluation of skin autofluorescence as a surrogate of advanced glycation end products accumulation in children and adolescents with normal haemoglobin A1c values

Abstract

Introduction: Skin autofluorescence (sAF) represents tissue accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and correlates with cardiovascular morbidity and diabetes risk. The aim: To assess sAF in Polish children without diabetes and to investigate whether sAF values in children with chronic diseases (but without glucose metabolism disorders) differ from sAF in healthy children. Material and methods: Children without diseases known to influence sAF results (diabetes, renal failure) and with HbA1c < 5.7% (39 mmol/mol) were included, and the total study group was divided into two subgroups: With and without chronic conditions. Skin autofluorescence was measured with an AGE Reader (Diagnoptics BV, Groningen, Netherlands). Data were presented as medians; Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskall Wallis test, and Spearman's correlation coefficients were used in statistical analyses. Results: The study group included 86 children (41 girls; mean age 10.1 ±4.2 years). Median sAF was 1.20 AU (25th-75th centile: 1.06-1.30). There was a positive correlation between sAF and age (R = 0.37, p = 0.0005). Skin autofluorescence values were higher in children with chronic diseases than in healthy children (1.23 AU [25th-75th centile: 1.10-1.40], n = 51 vs. 1.16 AU [1.06-1.26], n = 36, p = 0.0272). Conclusions: To our knowledge we present the first data on sAF values in Polish children without glucose metabolism disorders. We suggest that larger, homogenous populations of different ages should be studied to determine if and which diseases affect sAF measurements, and to develop pediatric reference values for sAF. This will allow a wider use of sAF measurement in the assessment of cardiovascular risk in the paediatric population.