Effect Of Gabapentin On Plasma Protein Kinase C Activity In The Treatment Of Painful Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy

OBJECTIVEThis study evaluated the effects of gabapentin on pain and plasma protein kinase C(PKC) activity in the patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (PDPN)，andpreliminarily investigated analgesia mechanism of it.METHODSThe degree of pain in patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy wasmeasured on visual analogue scale. In the study,56patients with PDPN in type2diabetesmellitus were divided into therapy group (28cases) and control group (28cases) by with orwithout gabapentin treatment. There were also30type2diabetes mellitus patients withoutPDPN and26healthy control subjects. The efficacy was evaluated by comparison of visualanalogue scale（VAS）scores at the baseline week and the fourth week of therapy. Thesensory nerve conduction velocities（SCV）of limbs and the frequency and severity ofadverse events were also observed．The plasma PKC activity in the patients with PDPNwas detected before and after gabapentin treatment．RESULTSVAS scores of patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy were significantlylower (P<0.05) but SCV of them were not greatly improved after the treatment ofgabapentin by comparison of ones of patients with the painful diabetic peripheralneuropathy without the treatment of gabapentin (P>0.05). Adverse events in the therapygroup were drowsiness (5patients)，dizziness (3patients) and weakness (1patients), butslight and could be tolerated by patients. The activity of plasma PKC in the patients withtype2diabetes mellitus was higher than that in the healthy control subjects (P<0.05). Theactivity of plasma PKC in the patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy was notsignificantly decreased (P>0.05). CONLUSIONSGabapentin was effective for the treatment of patients with PDPN and its adverseevents were mild. The activity of PKC was involved in the development of PDPN.Gabapentin had no greatly influence on the activity of plasma PKC in the patients withPDPN.