Different reticulocyte volume in diabetes mellitus patients with and without hypercholesterolemia and/or hypertriglyceridemia.

Red cells and reticulocytes from patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) were analysed using laser and computer technology of H*3 hematology analyzer. Four groups of diabetes mellitus patients: diabetes with normolipemia (DM) (n = 12) and DM patients with excess triglyceride (DM-T) (n = 7) or cholesterol (DM-C) (n = 21) or both (DM-TC) (n = 21) were studied. Mean corpuscular volume of mature red cells (Mean +/- SD = 93.6 +/- 5.5 fl) and reticulocyte (119.1 +/- 12.3 fl) of patients with DM-T was not significantly increased from normal (red cell, 90.0 +/- 3.5 fl; reticulocyte, 115.2 +/- 7.3 fl). Plasma triglyceride levels had no significant correlation with red cell MCV, reticulocyte MCV and %Hb A1c. This suggests that high triglyceride levels in DM are not dose-dependent in producing increased MCV of red cells and reticulocytes. Comparing between DM-T and DM-C, red cells and reticulocytes from DM-C patients had significantly decreased MCV (red cell, 85.5 +/- 6.1 fL; reticulocyte, 103.8 +/- 7.4 fL). Plasma cholesterol levels were inversely correlated with MCV of red cells (r = -0.377, p = 0.003) and also MCV of reticulocytes (r = -0.418, p = 0.001). In addition, cholesterol levels showed considerable correlation with Hb A1c (r = 0.572, p = 0.004). The red cell volume change in DM-C patients may be partly due to the shift in balance of cholesterol exchange between red cell membranes and serum lipoproteins.