C-reactive protein genetic variant is associated with diabetic retinopathy in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes

BACKGROUND: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is an important microvascular complication of diabetes with a high concordance rate in patients with diabetes. Inflammation is supposed to participate in the development of DR. This study aimed to investigate whether genetic variants of CRP are associated with DR. METHODS: A total of 1,018 patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited in this study. Of these patients, 618 were diagnosed with DR, 400 were patients with diabetes for over 10 years but without DR, considered as cases and controls for DR, respectively. Four tagging SNPs (rs2808629, rs3093077, rs1130864 and rs2808634) within CRP region were genotyped for all the participants. Fundus photography was performed for diagnosis and classification for DR. RESULTS: rs2808629 was significantly associated with increased susceptibility to DR (odds ratio 1.296, 95% CI 1.076-1.561, P = 0.006, empirical P = 0.029, for G allele). This association remained significant after adjustment for confounding factors (odds ratio 1.261, 95% CI 1.022-1.555, P = 0.030). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we found CRP rs2808629 was associated with DR in the Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes.