Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Determining The Link Between Advanced Glycation Endproducts (Ages), Feeding, And Metabolism, Lauren Wimer

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Biological Sciences Master's Theses

Reactive a-dicarbonyls (a-DC’s), such as methylglyoxal (MGO), are unavoidable metabolites generated during glycolysis that accumulate with age and have been linked with chronic age-related metabolic diseases such as Diabetes Mellitus. Diabetes Mellitus is generally characterized by peripheral neuropathy and sustained hyperglycemia. Chronic hyperglycemia leads to an increase in glycolysis and a downstream increase in reactive a-DC’s. The human body has a natural method of detoxifying these a-DC’s. Glycolytic cells have enzymes which can detoxify a-DC’s, but if overwhelmed, a-DC’s can accumulate and react non-enzymatically with proteins, lipids and DNA to yield a group of molecules called advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). …