Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 Level Measured in Dried Blood Spots as a Biomarker for Diabetic Retinopathy
- 1Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- 2Department of Ophthalmology, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, San Francisco, CA, USA
Abstract
Purpose: To identify inflammatory proteins that differ between diabetic patients with and without retinopathy and to evaluate the feasibility of dried blood spots (DBSs) to measure monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1).
Methods: In part I, we recruited 74 patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and 82 diabetic patients without retinopathy (DM no DR). We compared plasma concentrations of inflammatory proteins between groups. In part II and part III, we included 39 patients consisting of 13 DR patients, 13 DM no DR patients, and 13 patients without diabetes. We compared the level of the significant protein identified from part I between disease groups (part III) and between vial blood and DBSs (part II). We also conducted receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.
Results: From part I, we identified MCP-1 as significantly higher in male DR patients than in male DM no DR patients with 5 to 10 years of diabetes. In part II and part III, multivariable regression controlling for clinical characteristics showed elevated MCP-1 levels in the DR group (coefficient 22.36 pg/mL, P = 0.008) compared to control patients without diabetes. The direct comparison between DR patients and DM no DR patients showed a nonsignificant trend of higher MCP-1 in DR patients. The area under the curve for DBS-derived MCP-1 was 0.754 (95% confidence interval, 0.594–0.915), with an optimal DR threshold of 20.47 pg/mL, yielding a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 53.8%.
Conclusions: Elevated MCP-1 in DR patients suggests its potential use as a biomarker for DR. We identified thresholds of MCP-1 in DBS for DR screening.
Translational Relevance: Our study supports the potential feasibility of point-of-care testing of MCP-1 for DR risk stratification.
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BibTeX
@article{chen2026monocyte,
title = {{Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 Level Measured in Dried Blood Spots as a Biomarker for Diabetic Retinopathy}},
author = {Xinyi Chen and Hannah El-Sabrout and Simon Le and Monica Tran and Matthew Huh and Madelynn E. Mackenzie and Nicole Y. Xin and Wendy Yang and Joshua Wu and Daphne Yang and Ricardo Lamy and Jay M. Stewart},
journal = {Translational Vision Science \& Technology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1167/tvst.15.10.31},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.15.10.31},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 Level Measured in Dried Blood Spots as a Biomarker for Diabetic Retinopathy
AU - Xinyi Chen
AU - Hannah El-Sabrout
AU - Simon Le
AU - Monica Tran
AU - Matthew Huh
AU - Madelynn E. Mackenzie
AU - Nicole Y. Xin
AU - Wendy Yang
AU - Joshua Wu
AU - Daphne Yang
AU - Ricardo Lamy
AU - Jay M. Stewart
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
JO - Translational Vision Science & Technology
DO - 10.1167/tvst.15.10.31
UR - https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.15.10.31
AB - Purpose: To identify inflammatory proteins that differ between diabetic patients with and without retinopathy and to evaluate the feasibility of dried blood spots (DBSs) to measure monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1). Methods: In part I, we recruited 74 patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and 82 diabetic patients without retinopathy (DM no DR). We compared plasma concentrations of inflammatory proteins between groups. In part II and part III, we included 39 patients consisting of 13 DR patients, 13 DM no DR patients, and 13 patients without diabetes. We compared the level of the significant protein identified from part I between disease groups (part III) and between vial blood and DBSs (part II). We also conducted receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results: From part I, we identified MCP-1 as significantly higher in male DR patients than in male DM no DR patients with 5 to 10 years of diabetes. In part II and part III, multivariable regression controlling for clinical characteristics showed elevated MCP-1 levels in the DR group (coefficient 22.36 pg/mL, P = 0.008) compared to control patients without diabetes. The direct comparison between DR patients and DM no DR patients showed a nonsignificant trend of higher MCP-1 in DR patients. The area under the curve for DBS-derived MCP-1 was 0.754 (95% confidence interval, 0.594–0.915), with an optimal DR threshold of 20.47 pg/mL, yielding a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 53.8%. Conclusions: Elevated MCP-1 in DR patients suggests its potential use as a biomarker for DR. We identified thresholds of MCP-1 in DBS for DR screening. Translational Relevance: Our study supports the potential feasibility of point-of-care testing of MCP-1 for DR risk stratification.
SN - 2164-2591
ER -