Abstract
Purpose :
Proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) and diabetic macular edema (DME) are the most common causes of severe vision loss in diabetic subjects. In previous studies, we have identified various pro-angiogenic and pro-inflammatory factors in the vitreous of subjects with PDR. In this study, we analyze these factors to determine whether we can differentiate between biomarkers associated with PDR and those associated with DME.
Methods :
Undiluted vitreous samples previously collected from non-diabetic controls (n=30), PDR without DME (n=35) and PDR with DME (n=30) were subjected to multiplexing for 31 pro-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic factors that were determined to be elevated based on previous statistical analysis. Data were Box-Cox-transformed and then analyzed using multivariate (MANCOVA) and univariate (ANCOVA) methods.
Results :
There were no differences in age and gender among PDR with DME and PDR without DME and control groups. MANCOVA analysis of 31 factors identified 20 factors that were significantly different in PDR with and without DME (P<0.01), and 12 novel factors (P<0.01), some of which have not been previously reported.
Conclusions :
This study demonstrates that a variety of pro-angiogenic and pro-inflammatory factors participate in PDR and DME. MANCOVA analysis identified 12 factors that have not been previously reported. These factors may participate in processes associated with PDR, may have the potential to be surrogate biomarkers for disease progression and provide potential targets for intervention.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.