Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Immunology, University of Health Sciences

2 Children Hospital and Institute of Child Health, Lahore

3 Department of Biochemistry, Sahiwal Medical College, Sahiwal

4 Amin Hayat Memorial Diabetic Centre, Lahore

5 Departments of Pathology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a health concern which leads to complications such as retinopathy. Pakistan has 6.9 million people living with DM and this toll will be doubled by 2025.
Objective:
To determine serum IL-6 and IL-17 of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with retinopathy.
Methods:
In this cross-sectional casecontrol study, 212 subjects enrolled which were categorized into 3 groups. Group-I included 30 subjects without diabetes, group-II consisted of 30 subjects with T2DM without retinopathy and group-III consisted of 152 subjects with T2DM and retinopathy. Serum IL-6 and IL-17 levels were determined by ELISA. Data was analysed using SPSS 17.0 and one way ANOVA to observe group mean differences.
Results: Longer mean duration of disease was detected in group-III than group-II (p=0.007). Highest IL-6 level was detected in group-II and highest IL-17 level was detected in group-I. For IL-6, significant differences were detected among groups in total, between Group-I and Group-III and between Group-II and Group-III (p<0.0001 each). Regarding IL-17, significant differences were found among groups in total (p=0.002) and between Group-I and Group-III (p=0.001). No significant difference in the percentages of HbA1c observed between groups.
Conclusions:
Age, gender and duration of diabetes contribute to T2DM retinopathy. Serum IL-6 and IL-17 were inversely associated with T2DM retinopathy.

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