Association between platelet activating factor acetylhydrolase and diabetic retinopathy: Does inflammation affect the retinal status?

Aim: To assess the role of plasma platelet activating factor acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) in pathogenesis and progression of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Materials and methods: Sixty eight diabetics and 23 age-frequency-matched non-diabetic patients underwent blood sampling and the plasma PAF-AH activity was calculated. The diabetic patients were further classified into two groups, according to the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) classification, based on indirect fundoscopy and fluorescein angiography. Thirty seven patients with non-proliferative DR (NPDR) and 31 patients with proliferative DR (PDR) were finally included in the study. Results: The plasma PAF-AH activity was increased in diabetic patients with PDR (0.206 mu mol/min/ml) compared to control group (0.114 mu mol/min/ml, post-hoc Bonferroni comparison test: p < 0.0001) and to NPDR group (0.147 mu mol/min/ml, post-hoc Bonferroni comparison test: p = 0.012). Conclusions: The activity of PAF-AH in the plasma increases in parallel with DR severity. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.