Chimerin 2 genetic polymorphisms are associated with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy in Taiwanese type 2 diabetic patients.

To investigate whether chimerin 2 (CHN2) genetic polymorphisms were associated with the susceptibility to diabetic retinopathy (DR) in Taiwanese individuals with type 2 diabetes. This case-control study comprised of 171 individuals with DR and 548 without DR. Four rs39059, rs2023908, rs1002630 and rs1362363 polymorphism of CHN2 were genotyped for each subjects. All subjects underwent a complete ophthalmologic examination, and basic information (age, gender, age at diagnosis of diabetes, and ocular history of the patient) was record. Several clinical parameters (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, waist and hip circumferences, body mass index levels, fasting glucose and HbA1c) were measured. Logistic regressions were used to analyze odds ratios between SNPs and DR after controlling for gender, systolic blood pressure, waist and hip ratio, duration of diabetes, serum HbA1c levels and nephropathy classification. A protective effect of rs1002630 (GA+AA) and rs1362363 (AG+GG) [odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval)=0.45 (0.22-0.88), 0.66 (0.44-0.99), respectively) was observed. Furthermore, the protective effect of rs1002630 was observed when compared subjects with non-proliferative DR with subjects without DR [OR=0.25 (95%C.I. = 0.09-0.73)]. This study showed that the rs1002630 of CHN2 were associated with DR risk and non-proliferative DR risk in Taiwanese individuals with type 2 diabetes. Variations at this locus may contribute to the pathogenesis of DR.