Abstract
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus (DM) and a leading cause of blindness in working-age adults in developed countries. Numerous investigations have recognised inflammation and angiogenesis as important factors in the development of this complication of diabetes. Current methods of DR treatment are predominantly used at advanced stages of the disease and could be associated with serious side effects. Therefore, new diagnostic methods are needed in order to identify the initial stages of DR as well as monitoring the effects of applied therapy. Biochemical biomarkers are molecules found in blood or other biological fluid and tissue that indicate the existence of an abnormal condition or disease. They could be a valuable tool in detecting early stages of DR, identifying patients most susceptible to retinopathy progression and monitoring treatment outcomes. Biomarkers related to DR can be measured in the blood, retina, vitreous, aqueous humour and recently in tears. As the retina represents a small part of total body mass, a circulating biomarker for DR needs to be highly specific. Local biomarkers are more reliable as indicators of the retinal pathology; however, obtaining a sample of aqueous humour, vitreous or retina is an invasive procedure with potential serious complications. As a non-invasive novel method, tear analysis offers a promising direction in further research for DR biomarker detection. The aim of this paper is to review systemic and local inflammatory and angiogenic biomarkers relevant to this sight threatening diabetic complication.
Highlights
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus (DM) and a leading cause of visual impairment and preventable blindness in working-age adults in developed countries [1]
Increased concentrations of IL-8 have been found in serum as well as vitreous and aqueous humour (AH) of patients with proliferative DR (PDR) and diabetic macular oedema (DME) having a specific role in ME formation associated with diabetes [20,27,28,33,36,46,64]
Inflammation and angiogenesis play a significant role in the pathogenesis of DR
Summary
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus (DM) and a leading cause of visual impairment and preventable blindness in working-age adults in developed countries [1]. It is characterized by the occurrence of microaneurysms, increased vascular permeability, capillary occlusion, fibrous and neovascular proliferation. Given that a number of these molecules are involved in the formation and development of DR, in this review, we have included potential systemic and local biomarkers which were evaluated based on their role in DR pathogenesis
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