title: Negative association of serum IL-6 and IL-17 with type-II diabetes retinopathy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a health concern which leads to complications such as retinopathy. Pakistan has 6.9 million people living with DM and this toll will be doubled by 2025.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine serum IL-6 and IL-17 of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with retinopathy.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional case-control study, 212 subjects enrolled which were categorized into 3 groups. Group-I included 30 subjects without diabetes, group-II consisted of 30 subjects with T2DM without retinopathy and group-III consisted of 152 subjects with T2DM and retinopathy. Serum IL-6 and IL-17 levels were determined by ELISA. Data was analysed using SPSS 17.0 and one way ANOVA to observe group mean differences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Longer mean duration of disease was detected in group-III than group-II (p=0.007). Highest IL-6 level was detected in group-II and highest IL-17 level was detected in group-I. For IL-6, significant differences were detected among groups in total, between Group-I and Group-III and between Group-II and Group-III (p<0.0001 each). Regarding IL-17, significant differences were found among groups in total (p=0.002) and between Group-I and Group-III (p=0.001). No significant difference in the percentages of HbA1c observed between groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Age, gender and duration of diabetes contribute to T2DM retinopathy. Serum IL-6 and IL-17 were inversely associated with T2DM retinopathy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan, e-mail: immunology@uhs.edu.pk.
authors.forename: Nadeem
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Afzal
authors.forename: Shakeela
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zaman
authors.forename: Aneela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Asghar
authors.forename: Khursheed
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Javed
authors.forename: Faheem
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Shahzad
authors.forename: Abu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zafar
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Nagi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood*; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020381:Interleukin-17 / Q000097:blood*; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D020381:Interleukin-17; D015850:Interleukin-6