CHI3L1 and retinal disorder: Sakamoto et al. [19] showed also elevated levels of YKL-40 in a cohort of Japanese T1D patients younger than the cohort of Danish patients (mean age of 25 years), with less mean duration of diabetes (13 years) and with a lower prevalence of microvascular complications (9 % of microalbuminuria, 33 % of retinopathy).