title: Inverse relationship of serum IL-17 with type-II diabetes retinopathy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a health concern because it leads to complications such as retinopathy. Pakistan has 6.9 million DM affected people that will double by 2025. A study was designed to determine the level of IL-17 in the serum of Pakistani type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  It was a cross-sectional case-control study that included 212 subjects. Subjects without diabetes were labeled as Group-I (30 healthy volunteers), Group-II (30 T2DM without retinopathy), and Group-III (152 T2DM with retinopathy). The serum level of IL-17 was determined by ELISA technique. Data was analysed using SPSS 17.0 and one way ANOVA to observe group mean differences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More females were in Group-II (83%) and Group-III (66%) compared to Group-I (30%). The age of subjects was higher in Group-III (50 years) and Group-II (49 years) compared to Group-I (34 years). Group-III had longer mean duration of disease (10.51 years) than Group-II (7.76 years). Group-I had increased levels of IL-17 followed by Group-II and Group-III. On comparison, statistically significant differences were observed among the three groups, and between Group-I and Group-III, but there was no significant difference between Group-I and Group-II, nor between Group-II and Group-III. Further, on comparison of age, gender, and duration of disease there were significant differences while there was no significant difference between the percentages of HbA1c.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Age, gender, and duration of diabetes may contribute in the development of T2DM retinopathy while serum level of IL-17 was inversely associated with T2DM and retinopathy.
authors.affiliation: Department of lmmunology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. immunology@uhs.edu.pk
authors.forename: Afzal
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nadeem
authors.affiliation: Department of lmmunology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Khursheed
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Javaid
authors.affiliation: Departments of Biostatics, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Waqas
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sami
authors.affiliation: Amin Hayal Memorial Diabetic Centre, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Abu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zafar
authors.affiliation: Department of lmmunology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Shah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jahan
authors.affiliation: Children Hospital & Institute of Child Health, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Shakeela
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zaman
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Ah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nagi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications*; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020381:Interleukin-17 / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D020381:Interleukin-17