VEGF, apelin and HO-1 in diabetic patients with retinopathy: a correlation analysis

BACKGROUND: It’s necessary to analyze the role of VEGF, apelin, and HO-1 in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM), and to evaluate its relevance to diabetic retinopathy (DR). METHODS: T2DM patients who were treated in our hospital from December 1, 2018 to November 30, 2019 were included. T2DM patients were divided into non-DR (NDR) group, non-proliferative DR (NPDR) group, and proliferative DR (PDR) group. and healthy participants were selected as the control group. The value of VEGF, apelin, and HO1 in predicting PDR were analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and the relations of VEGF, apelin, HO-1 and clinical factors in PDR patients were analyzed by Pearson correlation analysis. RESULTS: A total of 295 participants were included. The level of FPG and HbAlc in PDR group were significantly higher than that of other groups (all p < 0.05); the level of VEGF and apelin in PDR group were significantly higher than that of other groups (all p < 0.05), but the level of HO-1 in PDR group were significantly less than that of other groups(p = 0.017); the AUC of VEGF, apelin, HO-1 and combined use was 0.806(95%CI: 0.779–0.861), 0.819(95%CI: 0.765–0.878), 0.808(95%CI: 0.733–0.869) and 0.902(95%CI: 0.822–0.958) respectively, the AUC, sensitivity, specificity of the three combined use was significantly higher than that of single VEGF, apelin, HO-1 use(all p < 0.05). The cutoff values of serum VEGF, apelin, and HO-1 levels for predicting PDR were 163.85 pg/ml, 8.27 ng/ml, and 26.06 mmol/L respectively. Serum VEGF, apelin, and HO-1 in patients with PDR was related to the time course of DM, FPG and HbAlc (all p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: VEGF, apelin and HO-1 are related to the progress of DR, and the combined use of VEGF, apelin and HO-1 is beneficial to the diagnosis and treatment of PDR.