Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: Circulating autoantibodies specific to retinal proteins have been associated with retinal destruction in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DMR). However, there is a little information on the prevalence of autoantibodies. The aim of the study was to identify an autoantigen profile against retinal proteins in DMR serum, and to evaluate the usefulness of identified proteins on the diagnosis of DR. Methods: We screened the presence of anti–retina protein antibodies with normal donor, diabetes mellitus (DM) patients and DMR patients using 1–DE immunoblotting and the proteomics technique, with 2–DE immunoblotting and ESI–MS/MS was used to identify anti–retinal antibodies. And then we confirmed the expression level of autoantibody in each patient sera or normal sera by ELISA to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of autoantibody. Results: There was a higher incidence of anti–retinal autoantibodies in DMR than DM or normal donors. We chose the 22 spots in 2–DE immunoblotting, and identified a total of 19 proteins associated with diabetic retinopathy. We selected the aldolase C that have the strongest potential of autoantigens related with diabetic retinopathy. The anti–aldolase autoantibody content in DMR patient sera were increased as compared to DM patient sera (DM versus NPDR, p < 0.001; DM versus PDR, p < 0.001). However, comparisons of the autoantibody level in severity of retinopathy with NPDR and PDR, was not quite significant (NPDR versus PDR, p = 0.027). Conclusions: The identification of anti–retinal autoantibodies in DMR suggests that the autoantibodies in serum may be useful as a diagnostic marker of diagnosis of DMR.
Keywords: diabetic retinopathy • clinical laboratory testing