Original article
Enhanced Circulating Soluble LR11 in Patients With Diabetic Retinopathy

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2012.01.035Get rights and content

Purpose

To investigate the relationship of circulating levels of soluble form of LR11 (sLR11; also called SorLA or SORL1), with the progression of proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Methods

Fifty-four patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were divided into 2 sex- and age-matched groups: one with PDR (n = 29) and the other with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (n = 25). The serum sLR11 levels were measured with an immunodetection system followed by chemifluorescence quantification.

Results

The serum sLR11 levels were higher in the PDR group than in the nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy group (5.8 ± 1.2 U vs 3.7 ± 1.3 U; P < .01). A multivariate regression analysis showed that circulating sLR11 is a factor contributing to the prediction of PDR independent of other classical risk factors, and an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed that the sensitivity and the specificity were equivalent to or more than those of other factors. Among the classical risk factors for PDR, glycosylated hemoglobin levels showed the highest correlation coefficient (P < .01) for the sLR11 concentrations.

Conclusions

Serum sLR11 concentration may reflect the progression of PDR in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. sLR11, released from immature vascular cells and indicating the development of atherosclerosis, is expected to be a novel candidate biomarker indicating diabetic retinopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Section snippets

Study Population

The subjects consisted of 56 consecutive Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus seeking treatment at the Department of Laboratory Vascular Function, Toho University Sakura Medical Center, who had already given blood samples. PDR was defined according to the international clinical classification of diabetic retinopathy as neovascularization in the retina.12 Vitreous surgeries had been performed to treat macular edema (n = 7), vitreous hemorrhage (n = 13), traction retinal detachment (n

Results

The patient characteristics are shown in Table 1. The age- and gender-matched NPDR and PDR groups comprised 25 and 29 subjects, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in BMI, duration of diabetes, frequency of hyperlipidemia or dyslipidemia, or estimated glomerular flow rate between the NPDR and PDR subjects. There were also no statistically significant differences in HbA1c, fasting blood sugar, or lipid concentrations between the NPDR and PDR subjects. Although there

Discussion

LR11 is highly expressed in the endothelial cells under the condition of dyslipidemia as well as in the intimal smooth muscle cells migrated from media in the development of atherosclerosis.2, 3 Two recent independent studies for the subjects with dyslipidemia or coronary heart diseases have shown that the concentrations of soluble form, sLR11, were associated with the HbA1c levels in these subjects with different backgrounds.4, 5

The key cytokines underlying the pathogenesis and development of

References (23)

  • M. Jiang et al.

    AngII-stimulated migration of vascular SMC is dependent on LR11

    J Clin Invest

    (2008)
  • Cited by (15)

    • Circulating soluble LR11, a differentiation regulator for vascular cells, is increased during pregnancy and exaggerated in patients with pre-eclampsia

      2019, Clinica Chimica Acta
      Citation Excerpt :

      In order to delineate the involvement of vascular cell differentiation in the complex systemic inflammatory conditions in pre-eclampsia, the current study focuses on the role of a differentiation regulator for vascular cells, sLR11. The rationale for the study lies in the observation that circulating sLR11 levels are indicative of the pathological chronic inflammatory cellular conditions in atherosclerotic patients with cardiovascular diseases [14–19] and obese patients with type 2 diabetes [17,20–22], known as chronic inflammatory diseases in the vascular wall [10,23]. LR11 was originally identified in vascular intimal de-differentiated SMCs, which display highly activated migration and cytokine release [30].

    • Levels of the soluble LDL receptor-relative LR11 decrease in overweight individuals with type 2 diabetes upon diet-induced weight loss

      2016, Atherosclerosis
      Citation Excerpt :

      In HepG2 and smooth muscle cell cultures, LR11 expression and sLR11 release are stimulated by triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TGRL) [18], which are typically increased in subjects with T2D [19,20]. Compared to healthy controls, levels of sLR11 are higher in individuals with T2D [21,22] and are correlated with hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels [21,23,24]. Individuals with T2D, complicated by coronary stenosis, acute coronary syndrome, or retinopathy, display increased plasma sLR11 levels, suggesting a link with the severity of vascular complications in these patients [21,23,25].

    • Circulating soluble form of LR11, a regulator of smooth muscle cell migration, is a novel marker for intima-media thickness of carotid arteries in type 2 diabetes

      2016, Clinica Chimica Acta
      Citation Excerpt :

      We have developed a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the exact quantitation of circulating sLR11 using specific monoclonal antibodies against human LR11 [12,13]. With this method, it could be shown that the concentrations of sLR11 were increased in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia [14], coronary artery diseases [15–17], type 2 diabetes (T2D) [15,18,19], and in patients with hematological malignancies [13,20–23]. Notably, several independent studies have shown that the concentrations of sLR11 were increased in relation to markers of glycemic disturbances among the classical risk factors for atherosclerosis [11,14–16,18,19].

    • Circulating LR11 is a novel soluble-receptor marker for early-stage clinical conditions in patients with non-hodgkin's lymphoma

      2014, Clinica Chimica Acta
      Citation Excerpt :

      LDL receptor relative with 11 ligand-binding repeats (LR11; also known as SorLA or SORL1) is a type I membrane protein that plays a key role in the migration of undifferentiated vascular smooth muscle cells via uPAR upregulation [16–18]. Serum sLR11 is a biomarker for arteriosclerosis [19], acute coronary syndrome [20], and diabetic retinopathy [21]. Moreover, increased sLR11 concentrations in the cerebrospinal fluid are a prospective marker of Alzheimer disease [22].

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text