Circulatory Biomarkers and Diabetic Retinopathy in Racial and Ethnic Populations

ABSTRACT

Clinical staging systems for diagnosis and treatment of diabetic retinopathy (DR) must closely relate to endpoints that are both relevant for patients and feasible for physicians to implement. Current DR staging systems for clinical eye care and research provide detailed phenotypic characterization to predict patient outcomes in diabetes but have limitations. Biochemical biomarkers provide a rich pool of potential candidates for new DR staging systems that can be readily measured in accessible fluids. Circulating biomarkers that are specific to the retina and relate to angiogenesis and inflammation have been suggested as relevant for DR. Although there is a lack of multi-ethnic studies evaluating circulatory biomarkers in DR, variability in circulatory biomarkers have been reported in people from different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Therefore, there is a need for future studies to evaluate individual or combinations of biomarkers in diverse populations with DR from different ethnic and racial backgrounds.

KEYWORDS:

• Biomarkers
• Circulatory Biomarkers
• Diabetic Retinopathy
• Staging

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank Dr. Lloyd Paul Aiello for reviewing and contributing to the manuscript.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

The authors declare they have no financial interests related to this research

Additional information

Funding

This reseach was supported by the American Diabetes Association (7-21-PDF-022).