Study on certain serum glycosylated proteins and lipids in diabetic retinopathy

The aim of the present work was to through more light on some factors involved in the vascular complications in diabetes mellitus; namely, plasma fibronectin and plasma alpha-2-macroglobulin in diabetics with normal fundus and in diabetics with retinopathy in a trial to clarify their possible role. Fifty diabetic patients [30 with retinopathy and 20 without retinopathy], in addition to 20 healthy control subjects were included in the present study. The study concluded that alpha-2-macroglobulin is a valuable indicator in the development of angiography in general than fibronectin, since the former was proved to be significantly elevated in diabetics with retinopathy than without, in addition to its significant correlation with microalbuminuria. Fibronectin showed neither elevation in retinopathic diabetics nor any correlation with microalbuminuria