Bonakdaran Shokoofeh, Shoeibi Nasser, Mojtaba Abrishami and Rokni Haleh
Retinopathy is a common complication of type 2 diabetes. Several factors including hyperglycemia and hypertension play important roles in retinopathy progression. However, the actual mechanistic pathways are not yet discovered. Prolactin via its antiangiogenic characteristics may exert protective effects on retina. We performed a case- control study in order to investigate the potential role of 23KD prolactin in retinopathy.
A total of 212 type 2 diabetics were recruited in this study. According to retinopathy they were divided into two groups. Group one (70 patients) suffered diabetic retinopathy and group two (142 patients) did not have retinopathy. There were significant differences in diabetes duration and hyperglycemia and systolic hypertension between two groups (p<0.05). However we did not find any significant difference in prolactin level between two groups (p>0.05). Serum 23 KD prolactin does not seem to have protective role in diabetes retinopathy.