Glycation

Glycation (non-enzymatic glycosylation) is the covalent attachment of a sugar to a protein, lipid or nucleic acid molecule.

Glycation is the non-enzymatic process responsible for many (e.g. micro and macrovascular) complications in diabetes mellitus and is implicated in some diseases and in aging.

[2][3][4] Glycation end products are believed to play a causative role in the vascular complications of diabetes mellitus.

Glycations occur mainly in the bloodstream to a small proportion of the absorbed simple sugars: glucose, fructose, and galactose.

It appears that fructose has approximately ten times the glycation activity of glucose, the primary body fuel.

Glycation pathway via Amadori rearrangement (in HbA1c, R is typically N-terminal valine) [ 6 ]
Imidazolones (R = CH 2 CH(OH)CH(OH)CH 2 OH) are typical glycation products. They arise by the condensation of 3-deoxyglucosone with the guanidine group of an arginine residue. [ 7 ]