In 2007, Al-Kateb et al. [38] utilized longitudinal data for retinal complications in the Caucasian type 1 diabetic population from the DCCT/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC) Study to examine the role of VEGF gene polymorphisms, and their study provided strong evidence that more than one polymorphism in VEGF was independently associated with the risk of developing DR. The gene discussed is VEGFA; the disease is diabetes mellitus.