{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,24]],"date-time":"2026-10-24T01:23:02Z","timestamp":1792804982968,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,14]],"date-time":"2025-03-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1741910400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Aase and Ejnar Danielsens Foundation","id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/02hcraz70","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Fight for Sight Denmark"},{"name":"Dagmar Marshalls Foundation"},{"name":"L\u00e6ge Sofus Carl Emil Friis og Hustru Olga Doris Friis Legat"},{"name":"Einar Willumsens Foundation","id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/02hhf2816","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"August Frederik Wedell Erichsens Foundation"},{"name":"Kong Christian den Tiendes Foundation","id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04rf54t04","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"The Synoptik Foundation","id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/00m5zxd20","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Vissing Foundation","id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/058x4wj03","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>To investigate levels of specific plasma-biomarkers related to neurodegeneration and inflammation in patients with different chronic degenerative retinal diseases, using an ultrasensitive technology called \u2018single molecule array\u2019 (SiMoA). Also, to investigate if biomarkers were measurable in the patient\u2019s blood, dependent on age and medical comorbidities, and useful for stratifying the diseases. This exploratory, cross-sectional study recruited 151 adults at the Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, Denmark (period 2019 to 2020). Clinical data came from the electronic medical-record system. The study population consisted of 131 patients: 32 with diabetic retinopathy (DR; 51 diabetes, DM), 27 with glaucoma, 53 with inherited retinal degeneration (IRD and 20 healthy controls (HC). Medical comorbidities included organ failure, other active eye diseases, and comorbidities. Three biomarkers, neurofilament-light-chain (NFL), glial-fibrillary-acidic-protein (GFAP), and CXC-motif chemokine ligand 13 (CXCL13), were measured with SiMoA technology. The age-adjusted values were reported as fold differences (FD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Increased NFL levels were found in DR patients compared to HCs (FD 1.81 95%CI 1.43, 2.28, p &lt; 0.001, adj-p &lt; 0.001). Similarly increased NFL levels were reported in advanced DR (PDR, DME), compared to both DM (FD 2.52 (95%CI: 1.71; 3.72, p &lt; 0.001, adj-p &lt; 0.001, and FD 2.04 (95%CI: 1.33; 3.12, p &lt; 0.001, adj-p &lt; 0.001), respectively) and HCs (FD 2.35 (95%CI: 1.67; 3.30, p &lt; 0.001, adj-p &lt; 0.001), and FD 1.89 (95%CI: 1.28; 2.79, p &lt; 0.001, adj-p &lt; 0.001) respectively). Independent of comorbidities, decreased NFL-levels were seen in IRD compared to DR (FD 0.49 (95% CI 0.39; 0.61, p &lt; 0.001; adj-p &lt; 0.001), \u00b1comorbidities). Decreased GFAP levels were seen in DM patients compared to HCs (FD 0.69; 95%CI 0.55, 0.87, p = 0.002, adj-p = 0.02), but contrary to an increasing trend in advanced DR compared to DM (-comorbidities). These results imply that these biomarker-tests are useful for detecting and monitoring development of retinopathy in the circulations of diabetes patients. Plasma-biomarkers may be useful to stratify between retinal disease types. Prospective studies are underway to explore this hypothesis in depth.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms26062625","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,14]],"date-time":"2025-03-14T07:02:16Z","timestamp":1741935736000},"page":"2625","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Novel Blood-Biomarkers to Detect Retinal Neurodegeneration and Inflammation in Diabetic Retinopathy"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"given":"Javad Nouri","family":"Hajari","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tomas","family":"Ilginis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tobias Torp","family":"Pedersen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Claes Sepstrup","family":"L\u00f8nkvist","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jon Peiter","family":"Saunte","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mikael","family":"Hofsli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9887-6331","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Diana Chabane","family":"Schmidt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2082-3664","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hajer Ahmad","family":"Al-abaiji","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yasmeen","family":"Ahmed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8249-5104","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniella","family":"Bach-Holm","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9375-1510","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Line","family":"Kessel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"},{"name":"Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Miriam","family":"Kolko","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"},{"name":"Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mette","family":"Bertelsen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Genetics, Rigshospitalet, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5172-5891","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lars Michael","family":"Larsen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Frederik","family":"S\u00f8rensen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Biostatistics, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7368-0869","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Julie Lyng","family":"Forman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Biostatistics, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dorte Aalund","family":"Olsen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry and Immunology, University of Southern Denmark, Vejle Hospital, 7100 Vejle, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Thomas","family":"Rosenberg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ivan","family":"Brandslund","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry and Immunology, University of Southern Denmark, Vejle Hospital, 7100 Vejle, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0404-0726","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carina","family":"Slidsborg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Rigshospitalet, 2600 Glostrup, 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