About AGE (Advanced Glycation Endproducts)
In 1912 Louis-Camille Maillard, a French Chemist, conducted a simple experiment in his lab that turned out to be a shortcut that created meat flavor and aroma through heating sugar and amino acids.This chemical reaction has thus been called Maillard Reaction or Browning Reaction.
Following extensive researches on the Maillard Reaction across diverse fields from food, nutrition to therapeutics, a term of Advanced Glycation Endproducts or AGEs has been introduced to describe the end products of Maillard Reaction that form under normal physiological conditions in living organisms.
AGEs accumulate with ageing in normal condition, but this process occurs more rapidly in patients with conditions such as diabetes and renal failure.
The accumulation of AGEs can initiate a wide range of abnormal responses in cells and tissues such as inappropriate expression of growth factors, alteration in growth dynamics, accumulation of extracellular matrix, promotion of vasoregulatory dysfunction and initiation of death pathways.
Skin AGE's, determined in skin tissue samples, correlate closely with early kidney, eye and nerve disease in patients with diabetes mellitus.
Until now it has been complicated to measure tissue AGEs in patients because existing methods are expensive, time consuming, lack specificity, are poorly reproducible and/or are invasive. In addition, there is currently no gold standard for AGEs measurements.
The AGE Reader™ is Health Canada licensed to non-invasively assess the risk of cardiovascular complications in type 2 diabetes through measuring tissue accumulation of AGEs.
For a copy of the references, please email
AlanDavis@BescotHealth.com.
AlanDavis@BescotHealth.com.
News on AGE research
and the AGE Reader™
and the AGE Reader™
New Publication: Assessment of skin autofluorescence as a marker of advanced glycation end product accumulation in type 1 diabetes.
New AGE Reader 2011 Publication OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to compare AGE accumulation in the skin of patients with type 1 diabetes and nondiabetic population as well as to assess its association with disease duration and metabolic control. We also aimed to assess the potential usefulness of this method in the monitoring [...]
DiagnOptics receives Health Canada approval for the AGE Reader.
Press Release Groningen, the Netherlands – March, 2011 DiagnOptics has received approval from Health Canada for the AGE Reader. This allows the Canadian distributor of the AGE Reader, Bescot Healthcare, to start the sale of the AGE Reader SU and CU in Canada. Health Canada reviewed the safety, effectiveness and quality of the AGE Reader [...]
AGE Reader™ Technology
The AGE Reader™ is the answer to the need for measuring AGEs without the disadvantages of the existing methods. This state of art device provides a simple non-invasive solution which allows clinicians to determine the AGEs' level within 30 seconds.
Many advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) have a characteristic fluorescence. Moreover, tissue fluorescence
in (invasive) biopsies has an established association with chronic complications. The AGE Reader™ is able to
easily, quickly and non-invasively measure this tissue fluorescence.The AGE Reader™ has a light source which illuminates the tissue of interest. This light will excite fluorescent moieties in the tissue which will emit light with another wavelength. In the used wavelength band the major contribution in fluorescence comes from fluorescent AGEs linked mostly to collagen, but also to other proteins and lipids. The emitted light is detected using a spectrometer. By using specific technical adaptations including selection of specific wavelength, modulated or pulsed light sources, a more selective discrimination of specific AGEs can be obtained.
The AGE Reader™ is Health Canada licensed to non-invasively assess the risk of cardiovascular complications in type 2 diabetes through measuring tissue accumulation of AGEs.
AGE Reader™ System
Powered by its proprietary technologies, this revolutionary device is a novel tool to researchers and clinicians and its arrival marks the new horizon in AGEs' detection and risk assessment on cardiovascular diseases associated with diabetes.The AGE Reader™ is:
- Real time
- Non-invasive
- Mobile
- Simple
- Reliable
- Accurate