ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the changes in the serum periostin (PN) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) level in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and the clinical significance.Methods The serum samples from 53 patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) as case group and 50 healthy subjects as control group were collected and compared in this study.And the DM patients included 15 patients with DM without fundus lesions (DM group),18 patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR,NPDR group) and 20 patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR,PDR group).The serum levels of PN and VEGF were analyzed by ELISA assay,and the correlation of DR with serum PN and VEGF levels was evaluated.Results The differences in serum PN and VEGF between the case group and control group were statistically significant (both P ＜ 0.05).And there were significant difference in PN and VEGF levels among the DM group,NPDR group,PDR group and control group (all P ＜ 0.05).Meanwhile,there was no significant difference in serum PN between the DM group and NPDR group (P ＞ 0.05),but there were statistically significant differences among the other groups (all P ＜ 0.05).There were statistically significant differences in serum VEGF among the four groups (all P ＜ 0.05).And finally,positive correlations were found between PN and VEGF in the NPDR group and PDR group (r =0.483,0.509,both P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion PN and VEGF play an active role in the initiation and development of DR,and they have a close correlation with the neovascularization and fibrovascular membrane of the advanced stage of DR.