7113 Abstract. – OBJECTIVE: Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the western world, among the working-age peo- ple. Its exact pathogenesis, however, remains obscure. Systemic infammation is regarded to play a signifcant role in diabetes by contrib- uting, among others, to the development of di- abetic retinopathy. This review focuses on the possible involvement of the systemic infamma- tory markers in the pathogenesis of diabetic ret- inopathy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a systematic search of the literature of published papers until August 2017 using the PubMed search engine. RESULTS: We demonstrated that many sys- temic infammatory markers contribute to the pathogenesis and progression of retinopathy, while we highlighted in several occasions their usefulness as a key tool in the monitoring of the disease progression and the treatment ef- fcacy. CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowl- edge this is the frst review in the literature that elaborates the possible association of serum infammatory markers and diabetic retinopa- thy, a disease that may cause irreversible loss of vision. Key Words: Diabetic retinopathy, Inflammation, Serum inflam- matory markers. Introduction Diabetes Mellitus and Diabetic Retinopathy Diabetes mellitus (DM) is characterized by hyperglycemia because of the total or relative lack of insulin (Type-1 and Type-2, respectively). Its incidence is reaching epidemic scales and according to the World Health Organization it is expected that there will be 366 million diabetic patients in 2030, twice the number of patients in 2000 1 . Diabetic complications are very common and major causes of morbidity and mortality, including cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, retinopathy, neuropathy, diabetic foot syndrome, and periodontitis 2,3 . Diabetic retinopathy (DR), a diabetic micro- vascular complication, is present in 35.4% of the diabetic patients 4 . DR is regarded as the leading cause of irreversible blindness among the work- ing-age people in the western world 5,6 , and the ffth most common cause worldwide of both pre- ventable vision loss and moderate to severe vision impairment 7 . Epidemiology of Diabetic Retinopathy DR prevalence is reported to be 77.3% in Type-1 DM (T1DM), and 32.4% in Type-2 DM (T2DM) 7 . According to the Wisconsin Epidemi- ologic Study of Diabetic Retinopathy (WESDR), European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences 2018; 22: 7113-7128 N.S. GOULIOPOULOS 1 , C. KALOGEROPOULOS 2 , A. LAVARIS 1 , A. ROUVAS 3 , I. ASPROUDIS 2 , A. GARMPI 4 , C. DAMASKOS 5 , N. GARMPIS 5 , A. KOSTAKIS 6 , M.M. MOSCHOS 1 1 1 st Department of Ophthalmology, University of Athens Medical School, ‘G. Genimmatas’ General Hospital Athens, Holargos Athens, Greece 2 Department of Ophthalmology, University Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece 3 2 nd Department of Ophthalmology, University of Athens Medical School, ‘Attikon Hospital’, Athens, Greece 4 Internal Medicine Department, Laiko General Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece 5 Second Department of Propedeutic Surgery, Laiko General Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece 6 Biomedical Research Foundation (IIBEA), Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece Corresponding Author: Nikolaos S. Gouliopoulos, MD, Ph.D; e-mail: ngouliopoulos@yahoo.gr Association of serum inflammatory markers and diabetic retinopathy: a review of literature