Evaluation of Calciferol, Cobalamin, and Stromelysin-1 in Patients with Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy due to-2 Diabetes Mellitus

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between calciferol (vitamin D), cobalamin (vitamin-B12), and Stromelysin-1 (MMP-3) circu-lating levels in patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), patients with DM type 2 (T2DM) without neuropathy, and healthy control groups. Study Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Internal Medicine, Namik Kemal University of Medicine, Tekirdag, Turkey, between November 2020 and February 2022. Methodology: Healthy, age, and gender matched volunteers who were admitted to the hospital for a check-up with no health problem constituted the control group (n=30). Cases diagnosed with T2DM (n=30) and those with DPN (n=30) comprised the experi-mental group. Stromelysin-1, calciferol, and cobalamin levels were analysed from blood samples from all groups using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with a commercial kit. Tukey's Honest Significant Difference (HSD) test was performed after one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for intergroup comparisons. Alpha significance level was accepted as <0.05. Results: There were significant differences in terms of the stromelysin-1, calciferol, and cobalamin levels of both the T2DM and DPN groups compared to healthy volunteers. These differences were statistically significant (p=0.00). There was a very weak negative correlation between stromelysin-1 and calciferol (p=0.972, r=-0.007) and a weak negative correlation between cobalamin and stromelysin-1 (p=0.062, r=-0.345) in DPN patients, without statistical significance. Conclusion: Serum stromelysin-1 expression may be related to DPN progression in diabetic patients and may be a potential marker in DPN. Calciferol and cobalamin levels may also be important in the development of DPN.