The Association of Lipoprotein Parameters and C-Reactive Protein in Patients with Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Abstract

Background: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of visual impairment in individuals over 50 years of age, with the prevalence of 0.05% before the age of 50 rising to 30% after 74 years of age. An elevated concentration of plasma lipoproteins is considered to be one of the risk factors of AMD development. The aim of our study was to analyze the concentration of serum lipoproteins – total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), non-LDL cholesterol and triglycerides – as well as apolipoproteins – apoA1, apoB and Lp(a) – along with C-reactive protein (CRP) in patients with AMD in order to explore the possible association of lipid and inflammatory parameters with the pathogenesis of AMD. Material and Methods: In the cross-sectional study in the University clinical setting, 79 patients with AMD, aged 71.47 ± 7.02 years, and 84 aged-matched control subjects were included. The patients underwent complete ophthalmological examination including visual acuity assessment, color fundus photography and fluorescein angiography. Results: Statistical processing data revealed significantly higher total (p = 0.0002), LDL (p = 0.023), non-HDL cholesterol (p = 0.0014) and CRP (p = 0.049) values in AMD patients compared to control subjects. Conclusions: Based on the obtained results, it may be concluded that lipid status disorder and inflammation could play an important role in the development of AMD in elderly people.

The Association between the Lipids Levels in Blood and Risk of Age-Related Macular Degeneration

“…With the exception of the study conducted by Colak et al [9], all of these studies showed a protective tendency. The pooling of these studies in the meta-analysis yielded an RR of the LDL level of 0.93 (95% CI, 0.88 to 0.99; I 2 = 0; p = 0.83; Figure 3) for an increment of 1 mmol/L, without heterogeneity.…”

“…After reviewing the full-text articles, 21 articles (19 studies) were included in this meta-analysis (Figure 1) [8,9,10,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33]. …”

“…A high level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) could induce reverse cholesterol transport and improve endothelial function, which decreases the risk of atherosclerosis [6], whereas a high level of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) exerts effects on atherosclerosis [7]. Previous epidemiological studies that evaluated the blood lipids in AMD have not yielded similar relationships, and some studies have shown inverse relationships between these lipid levels and AMD risk [8,9,10]. Furthermore, some of the HDL-increasing alleles in the HDL-C pathway, such as the lipoprotein lipase gene, the cholesterol ester transferase gene, and the ABC-binding cassette A1 gene, have been associated with increased AMD risk [11].…”

Risk factors and biomarkers of age-related macular degeneration

“…Several studies have found higher levels of plasma CRP levels in AMD patients compared to healthy controls (Colak et al, 2011; Hong et al, 2011; Robman et al, 2010; Seddon et al, 2004; Yasuma et al, 2010). Seddon et al found that CRP was significantly associated with the presence of both intermediate and advanced stages of AMD (OR=1.65, P=0.02) (Seddon et al, 2004).…”

The putative role of lutein and zeaxanthin as protective agents against age-related macular degeneration: promise of molecular genetics for guiding mechanistic and translational research in the field

“…We are currently applying the evidence base presented in Table 2 and Figure 1 to guide investigations designed to identify core elements of a "molecular phenotype" (a pattern gene regulation/expression and DNA variation) representing individual capacity to use transporters, receptors, enzymes, and hormones targeting or affected by MXs in ways that may reduce risk of AMD incidence or progression. Although we have not yet identified any single sequence variant explaining a proportion of variance in AMD risk comparable to those of the complement pathway genes, there is now informative work examining putative AMD-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms present in genes encoding proteins involved in MX transport (121,131,137,146,(148)(149)(150)(151)(152)(153)(154)(156)(157)(158)(159)(160)(161), binding/capture (141,162,163), cleavage (158,160), and diseases associated with lower MX status (177)(178)(179)(180)(181)(182)(183)(184). Projects examining the associations of MX-related genes with retinal pathophysiology in in vivo models have supported inferences on AMD relations with variants in MX transport genes (128,130,136,143).…”