Triamcinolone acetonide combined with aminoguanidine inhibits inflammation and oxidative stress, improves vascular endothelial and retinal function and reduces VEGF expression in diabetic retinopathy patients

Effects of triamcinolone acetonide (TA) combined with aminoguanidine (AG) on vascular endothelial function, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression and retinal function in diabetic retinopathy (DR) patients were studied. A total of 100 patients with DR admitted to the Taizhou Second People's Hospital Affiliated to Yangzhou University from January 2016 to December 2018 were collected and randomly divided into observation group (n=50) and control group (n=50). The control group was only treated with TA (4 mg), while the observation group was additionally treated with AG (50 mg/kg). The therapeutic effect and adverse reactions were observed, and the changes in blood glucose (GLU), blood lipid, serum inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress indexes before and after treatment were detected. Moreover, the serum VEGF level was examined, the central macular thickness (CMT), retinal neovascularization (RNV) leakage area and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of retinopathy were observed, and the vascular endothelial function indexes such as nitric oxide (NO), endothelin-1 (ET-1) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) were detected. The therapeutic effect in the observation group was significantly better than that in control group (P<0.05). In observation group after treatment, the levels of GLU, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), myeloperoxidase (MPO), malondialdehyde (MDA) and catalase (CAT) in the serum, VEGF, CMT and RNV, as well as NO, ET-1 and ICAM-1 were remarkably decreased (P<0.05), while those of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and BCVA were evidently increased (P<0.05). The changes were more significant at 3 months after treatment than those at 1 month. TA combined with AG can inhibit inflammation and oxidative stress, improve vascular endothelial function and retinal function and reduce VEGF expression in DR patients. The overall effect of the combined therapy is good, and its application is worth popularizing.