The development of diabetic retinopathy shows marked variations among individuals. Not only metabolic control, but also genetic factors may contribute to the development of diabetic retinopathy. Insulin resistance is now recognized as an independent risk factor for macroangiopathy in type 2 diabetes [1]. There is one report on the association between insulin resistance and diabetic retinopathy [2]. Fatty acid binding protein 2 (FABP2) is an intracellular protein expressed only in the intestine and acts as fatty acid absorption and metabolism [3]. An association between substitution of alanine to threonine at codon 54 of the FABP2 gene (Ala54Thr) and insulin resistance, presumably by increasing the absorption and oxidation of fatty acids, has been demonstrated [4]
[5]. In addition, a putative association between FABP2 gene polymorphism and macroangiopathy has been described in diabetes [6]. However, there has been no report on any association between the polymorphism of the FABP2 gene and diabetic microangiopathy. We therefore examined the association between FABP2 gene polymorphism and diabetic retinopathy in Japanese type 2 diabetic patients.
