Aldose reductase (−106) C/T gene polymorphism and associated risk factors with proliferative diabetic retinopathy in Palestine: A cross sectional study

Abstract

Abstract Background and Aims Genetic variants play a crucial role in the development of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Therefore, our study aimed to investigate the relationship between aldose reductase (ALR2) (C106T) polymorphism with proliferative DR and associated risk factors in Palestinian type 2 diabetic patients. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted at St John Eye Hospital‐East Jerusalem in 2020−2021 on patients with DR. All subjects had fundus examination by ophthalmologists and classified according to the severity of retinopathy. Genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood samples and genotyped by amplicon based next generation sequencing. Results A total of 155 patients were included, of them, 103 (66.5%) were diagnosed with non‐proliferative DR (NPDR) and 52 (33.5%) with proliferative DR (PDR). The PDR group had a significantly lower median age (59.5 [IQR: 13.3]) compared to the NPDR group (62 [IQR: 11.5]) (p = 0.04). Additionally, the duration of diabetes was higher in the PDR group (20 [IQR: 9]) compared to the NPDR group (15 [IQR: 10]) (p 0.05). Conclusions The present study showed that duration of diabetes and dyslipidemia were strong indicators for PDR progression, while ALR2 (C106T) polymorphism was not associated with severity of DR.

Keywords

• ALR2 polymorphism
• dyslipidemia
• Palestine
• retinopathy
• type 2 diabetes