Abstract
Purpose :
Diabetics may develop DR regardless of major systemic risk factors control. Our aim was to develop novel strategies for integrating clinical and molecular genetic data for better eye care in type 2 diabetics (T2DM).
Methods :
133 T2DM patients with (+) or without (-) DR, and 132 healthy controls (CG) aged 25-80 years at baseline, were followed during 38-months to outline patient characteristics/risk factors, typical DR features/progression, and blood-based biochemical parameters, including oxidative stress (OS) markers [malondiandehyde (MDA); total antioxidant activity (TAC)] and the expression of the solute carrier family 23 member 2 (SLC23A2 gene) that encodes for the sodium-dependent vitamin C transporter (SVCT2) protein. Statistics were performed by the SPSS 22.0 program.
Results :
Of the first enrolled participants, 73% completed the study. Hyperglycemia/T2DM duration, hypertension, obesity, dyslipemia and OS were the main DR risk factors observed in this population. Baseline ocular fundus revealed 62 T2DM+DR and 68 T2DM-DR patients. At the end of follow-up from the T2DM+DR patients 28% did not show any sign of DR progression whereas 30% of the T2DM-DR patients developed retinopathy. Each study point revealed significantly higher plasmatic MDA (p=0.05) and lower TAC (p=0.001) in diabetics vs the CG. SLC23A2 gene expression was significantly higher in diabetics vs the CG (p=0.000) but significantly lower in the T2DM+DR vs the T2DM-DR patients (p=0.001).
Conclusions :
This study pinpoints the importance of multicenter collaborative works and practical data integration including clinical and molecular genetic markers, to better managing the diabetic retina. We suggest that variations in the SLC23A2 gene can be associated with risk of DR progression in T2DM patients.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.