[Role of vascular endothelial growth factor in the development of diabetic retinopathy in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus].

The influence of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) on the course of diabetic retinopathy (DR) was studied in 35 patients, including 11 males and 24 females, aged 21 to 56 years (mean 37 +/- 2.6 years) who had type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) whose history was 14 to 40 years (mean 21.4 +/- 2.7 years). Tear and serum VEGF was examined by solid-phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), by using diagnostic Bender MedSystems (Austria) on a Stat Fax-2100 (USA). In the active phase of proliferative DR, the patients with type 1 DM were found to have the highest level of tear VEGF; when the process changed to a inactive phase, the content of this factor significantly reduced. There was a relationship between the tear level of VEGF and the degree of various manifestations of DR. There is an agreement of the tear and serum levels of VEGF in patients with different stages and manifestations of DR, which may be evidence for the single mechanism responsible for vascular endothelial damage in DM. There is a relationship between the presence of VEGF, the proliferative stage of DR, and diabetic nephropathy.