Can Diabetic Retinopathy Be Passed On By Parents To Their Child?

Prolonged diabetes can cause several medical conditions and one of them happens to be diabetic retinopathy. Under this eye-related medical condition, blood vessels present in the retina are largely affected and damaged. The condition can develop in anyone who has type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Considering how diabetes type 2 is mostly a genetic disorder, the question arises if children can inherit Diabetic Retinopathy from their parents?

A 2014 study published in the Current Diabetes Reports mentions that the medical condition can be inherited. According to the study led by two medical professionals from Hanyang University College of Medicine, South Korea and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, United States, “the role of genetic factors in shaping susceptibility to Diabetic Retinopathy has been known for many years.” Researchers mentioned that family-based studies have indicated that susceptibility to this medical condition is heritable.

There is a high consistency of Diabetic Retinopathy severity among twins with both type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. The study found that the heritability of this medical condition has been estimated to be as high as 27 percent while it is 52 percent for proliferative diabetic retinopathy, which is an advanced form of the disease.

Another study published in Frontiers in Endocrinology journal in 2019 found that diabetic retinopathy and coronary artery disease are clinically significant complications of type 2 diabetes that lead to increased morbidity and mortality in patients.

Researchers added that genetic risk factors were found to play an important role in the susceptibility to these complications. Previous studies have reported 25 to 50 percent genetic risk for diabetic retinopathy and 40 to 60 percent risk for coronary artery disease. The study found that genetic risk factors may act solely or in combination with primary risk factors such as hypertension and level of cholesterol, leading to this diabetic complication.

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