Increased serum 12-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid levels are correlated with an increased risk of diabetic retinopathy in both children and adults with diabetes

PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between serum 12-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (12-HETE) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODS: Children from the Shanghai Children and Adolescent Diabetes Eye (SCADE) study and adults from the Shanghai Cohort Study of Diabetic Eye Disease (SCODE) were examined in 2021. Serum 12-HETE levels were detected and compared. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between 12-HETE and the rate of DR in diabetic patients. RESULTS: The child study included 4 patients with new-onset DR and 24 patients with T1DM without DR. In children with T1DM, the 12-HETE level was significantly higher in those with DR (P = 0.003). The adult study had two sets, for testing and verification. The test set included 28 patients with new-onset DR and 24 T2DM patients with a course of ≥ 20 years who had never developed DR. The verification set included 41 patients with DR, 50 patients without DR and 50 healthy controls. In the adult test set, the 12-HETE level was significantly higher in patients with DR than in those with T2DM without DR (P = 0.003). In the verification set, the 12-HETE level of patients with DR was significantly higher than that of patients without DR (P < 0.0001) and the healthy controls (P < 0.0001). Multivariate logistic regression indicated that 12-HETE was independently associated with DR in both children (odds ratio [OR] 1.06, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.00–1.13, P = 0.041) and adults (test set [OR 9.26, 95% CI 1.77–48.59, P = 0.008], verification set [OR 10.49, 95% CI 3.23–34.05, P < 0.001]). CONCLUSION: Higher serum 12-HETE levels are positively correlated with an increased risk of DR in children with T1DM and adults with T2DM. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00592-022-01951-7.