Comparison of tear proteins between healthy and early diabetic retinopathy patients

Abstract Objectives To identify potential prognostic or diagnostic marker tear proteins for early diabetic retinopathy (DR) and to investigate the pathogenesis of this disease using proteomics techniques. Design and methods The tear proteins expressed in patients suffering from diabetes mellitus without the retinopathy symptoms, nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy and healthy volunteers were analyzed by 2-DE. The differentially expressed proteins in patients were identified by ESI-Q-TOF and confirmed by Western blotting. Results Proteins which were differentially expressed with statistical significance ( P Conclusions Proteomic analysis using tear is a novel approach that can provide insight into possible biomarker and the pathogenesis of early DR.