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Abstract

Diabetes Mellitus is one of the most prominent and rapidly increasing diseases in society today. Peripheral and autonomic neuropathy are prominent in any person presenting this disease, and therefore it is imperative to understand how these manifest in the diabetic. This study investigated dermal manifestations of T1D peripheral/autonomic neuropathy in comparison with healthy controls. Sudomotor dysfunction often presents complications in patient's suffering from Diabetes Mellitus and therefore we emphasized observation of sweat glands for the purposes of investigating this disease. Using iontophoresis we were able to test the efficacy of Pilocarpine and the neurotransmitter Acetylcholine for Sweat Gland (SG) induction. Post-induction, skin biopsies were harvested from volunteers for the purpose of immuno-staining and confocal analysis. There was previously no study that used a horizontal sectioning method for the purposes of investigating diabetic neuropathy. Using Confocal Microscopy and Light microscopy, we took an in depth look at structural components surrounding the sweat gland, such as innervation, vasculature and vesicular traffic. We found that diabetic patients exhibit severe structural degeneration in comparison to healthy controls. Additionally, our diabetic volunteers displayed evidence of lipofuscin, increased presence in fibroblasts and deficient sudomotor functional ability.

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