Abstract:Objective To investigate the serum level changes of Chemerin in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and its significance in condition assessment. Methods A total of 142 cases with type 2 diabetes were selected.Patients were divided into non-DR group (n = 53), non-proliferative DR group (n = 47) and proliferative DR group (n =42) according to the test results. In the same period, 40 healthy subjects were selected for control group. Clinical data were collected. Serum levels of Chemerin, interleukin -6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were detected.The correlations between DR course and other indicators were analyzed with multivariate analysis. The correlations between serum levels of Chemerin in patients with DR and other indicators were analyzed with Pearson analysis. The value of serum Chemerin in predicting progression of DR was analyzed with receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve). Results The course, fasting blood glucose (FPG), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and low density lipoprotein (LDL-C) in proliferative DR group were higher than those in non-proliferative DR group, non-DR group and the control group; and the indicator levels in non-DR group were higher than the control group, but were lower than non-proliferative DR group; while the high density lipoprotein (HDL-C) increased more in the control group compared with the proliferative DR group, the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The serum levels of Chemerin, IL-6 and TNF-α in the proliferative DR group were higher than the non-proliferative DR group, non-DR group and control group, and the indicator levels in non-DR group were higher than the control group, but were lower than non-proliferative DR group, the differences were statistical significance (P < 0.05). After excluding the impact of other indicators, the course of DR was positively correlated with Chemerin,IL-6, TNF-α, HbA1c and LDL-C, but was negatively correlated with HDL-C (r' = 0.582, 0.531, 0.498, 0.348, 0.335 and -0.352, all P < 0.05). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the serum levels of Chemerin in patients with DR were positively correlated with disease progression, IL-6, TNF-α, HbA1c and LDL-C (r = 0.359, 0.643, 0.667, 0.504 and 0.482, all P < 0.05). ROC curve analysis showed that when Chemerin equaled 38.9 μg/L, the sensitivity was 72.0% and the specificity was 83.0%. Conclusion The serum level of Chemerin in patients with DR was significantly increased,and was related with course of disease. It could be used as aided index for early prediction of proliferative DR.