Association of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Gene Polymorphism +936 C/T with Diabetic Neuropathy in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Peripheral neuropathy is one of the most common late complications of diabetes. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene polymorphisms have been associated with the development of peripheral neuropathy in different populations of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). To analyze the prevalence of the +936 C/T VEGF gene polymorphism among patients with DM2 with and without peripheral neuropathy. 218 unrelated DM2 patients, 90 with and 128 without peripheral neuropathy were genotyped for the +936 C/T VEGF gene polymorphism using PCR amplification followed by restriction length polymorphism analysis. The CC homozygous VEGF+936 C/T (rs3025039) was the predominant genotype in DM2 patients with peripheral neuropathy, whereas the predominant genotype in patients without neuropathy was the heterozygous C/T. No statistical association was found between genotype distribution and the presence of neuropathy (p = 0.063). The distribution of the genotypes according to the dominant (CC vs. CT + TT) and recessive (TT vs. CT + CC) models showed that the homozygous CC and TT genotypes, respectively, are not risk factors for neuropathy. The CT genotype conferred a protective effect as seen in the over-dominant model (CT vs. CC + TT) (OR = 0.52; 95% CI = 0.300–0.90; p = 0.019). We conclude that the VEGF+936 C/T (rs3025039) gene polymorphisms are related to peripheral neuropathy in Mexican DM2 patients, with the heterozygous genotype potentially conferring a protective effect.