Circulating adropin and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 levels in age-related macular degeneration and T2DM patients-A cross-sectional study.

Neethu, Areekulangara; Jayashree, Kuppuswami; Senthilkumar, Gandhipuram Periyasamy; Ramesh Babu, K; Vadivelan, Mehalingam · J Family Med Prim Care · 2020

cross_sectional · Level IV

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Abstract

Macular drusen formation and angiogenesis are the two chief processes associated with age-related macular degeneration. Adropin and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) may be involved in these pathologies. By altering lipid metabolism, adropin may contribute in the early stages of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). VEGFR-2 may participate in the later form of AMD, by promoting angiogenesis. This study compared the circulatory levels of adropin and VEGFR-2 in AMD and patients without AMD and assessed their association with disease severity, to understand their possible role in AMD. This study aimed to assess and compare the serum levels of adropin and VEGFR-2 in patients with AMD and type 2 diabetes patients without AMD, and, to investigate the correlation between these two parameters with disease severity. Our study involves two groups of 39 each. Group A (age-related macular degeneration) and Group B (diabetes patients without age-related macular degeneration). Routine parameters fasting blood sugar (FBS), lipid profile, and liver f<i>unction</i> tests (LFT) were estimated by using autoanalyzer. Serum adropin and VEGFR-2 were assessed by ELISA. Among the basic parameters, systolic blood pressure and fasting blood glucose alone were significantly different across the groups. We did not find significant alterations in adropin and VEGFR-2 levels between the study groups. Our lipid profile parameters (triglycerides and total cholesterol) have significant positive association. VEGFR-2 showed a positive correlation with the severity of AMD. Adropin did not exhibit any correlation with disease severity and with VEGFR-2. We could not find any observable alterations of statistical significance, in adropin and VEGFR-2 levels. VEGFR-2's correlation with disease severity could be important. Adropin might have subtler roles in AMD, though not evident from our study, and requires a deeper observation at the molecular level to elucidate its function.