Measuring glucose and lactate in sputum from people with lung disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of methods for measuring glucose and lactate in sputum from patients with chronic lung disease
IRAS ID
189481
Contact name
Emma H Baker
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 10 days
Research summary
The aim of the project is to develop new methods for measuring sugar (glucose) and lactate (a byproduct of sugar utilization) concentrations in lung secretions from patients with chronic lung disease.
The reason this is important is that we have shown that the sugar concentration is normally very low (about 12 times lower than blood) in lung secretions from healthy people. Lung sugar concentrations are elevated in people with high blood sugar (diabetes) or lung disease. Bacteria appear to thrive on sugar in lung secretions and we believe this increases the risk of lung infection, particularly in people with both diabetes and lung disease. In laboratory models we have shown that drugs that lower lung sugar prevent lung infections. We now need to see if this is also the case in humans. Before we can do treatment trials we need a reliable measure of sugar in lung secretions, which is the reason for the proposed study.
People with chronic lung disease will be asked to give a sample of their lung secretions (sputum). They will also have their finger pricked to obtain a drop of blood that will be analysed for sugar levels. We will process the sputum samples and measure glucose in different ways to see which is the best at measuring sugar levels accurately. Lactate - a glucose byproduct - will also be measured to see if this is a useful measure of how much sugar has been used up by the bacteria and immune cells in the sputum sample.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
15/NS/0095
Date of REC Opinion
2 Sep 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion