Forearm skin capillaries of diabetic, potential diabetic and nondiabetic subjects. Changes seen by light microscope

Light microscopic examinations were carried out on sections of skin from thirty diabetic and 101 control subjects. Examination of the periodic acid-Schiff stained material in a blind study revealed an abnormality in sixteen of the thirty diabetics and seven of the 101 controls. The abnormality is a hyalinization of the normally fibrillar area external to the endothelial cell of the dermal capillaries. Among the diabetics, the abnormality was seen more frequently in juvenile diabetes, long-standing diabetes, diabetes with retinopathy, neuropathy, or nephropathy, and in obese diabetics. The incidence in control subjects was not strikingly higher in those with a family history of diabetes (three in thirty-nine) or in acromegaly (one in eleven) than in other control subjects (three in fifty-one). Electron microscopic observations suggest that the lesion may be due to deposition of material in the collagen containing cuff of the capillary wall rather than to basement membrane thickening.

Lipoprotein patterns in acrylamide gel electrophoresis

Lipoproteins of serum stained before electrophoresis gave distinct patterns in acrylamide gel of 3-percent concentration. Samples compared in parallel on gel slabs showed qualitative differences in migration rates of beta-lipoprotein bands.