Glycome Atlas
Glycome pillar
Non-enzymatic sugar reactions, advanced glycation end products, and the measurements used to study cumulative glycemic exposure.
Advanced glycation end products, often shortened to AGEs, are the permanent, browned compounds that form when sugars slowly react with proteins and stay stuck. They are the final product of a chain of reactions that begins when blood sugar attaches to a protein. Once formed, most of them cannot be undone, so they build up on tissues that turn over slowly.
Read reviewed entryCarboxymethyllysine, or CML, is one of the best-studied advanced glycation end products. It forms when sugars and their reactive breakdown products modify the amino acid lysine in proteins, leaving a stable chemical tag.
Read reviewed entryFructosamine is a measure of how much sugar has attached to proteins in the blood, mainly albumin. Because these serum proteins are replaced faster than red blood cells, fructosamine reflects average blood sugar over a shorter window, roughly the past two to three weeks.
Read reviewed entryGlycation is what happens when sugar in the blood sticks to proteins on its own, without any enzyme helping it along. A sugar molecule latches onto a protein, and over time that loose attachment matures into a permanent, browned modification. It is the same basic chemistry that turns toast golden, only it is happening slowly inside the body.
Read reviewed entryHbA1c is a blood test that measures how much sugar has stuck to hemoglobin, the protein inside red blood cells that carries oxygen. Because red blood cells live for about three months, the amount of sugar attached to them reflects the average blood sugar over that period, not just the level on the day of the test.
Read reviewed entryMethylglyoxal is a small, highly reactive molecule the body makes as a byproduct of breaking down sugar for energy. It carries two reactive carbon centers, which makes it much more aggressive at sticking to proteins than glucose is. Cells have a dedicated cleanup system to keep its levels in check.
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