| Summary: | 博士 === 國防醫學院 === 醫學科學研究所 === 100 === Diabetic retinopathy (DR) can cause irreversible blindness and is the severest microvascular complication in the eyes of patients with diabetic mellitus (DM). The identification of susceptibility factors contributing to development of DR is helpful for identifying predisposed patients and improving treatment efficacy. Although proteomics analysis is useful for identifying protein markers related to diseases, it has never been used to explore DR-associated susceptibility factors in the aqueous humor (AH). To better understand the pathophysiology of DR and to identify DR-associated risk factors, a gel-based proteomics analysis was performed to compare the AH protein profiles of DM patients with and without development of DR. MALDI-TOF MS was then performed to identify protein spots that were differentially expressed between the two groups and Western blot analysis was used to validate the expressional change of protein demonstrated by proteomics. Our proteomics and bioinformatics identified 11 protein spots differentially expressed between DR and control groups. These proteins are linked to biological networks associated with nutrition transport, microstructure reorganization, angiogenesis, anti-oxidation, and neuroprotection. The data may provide potential AH biomarkers and susceptibility factors for predicting DR development, and provide an insight into the underlying patho-physiological mechanisms of DR.
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