Neurodegeneration in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic implications.

ABSTRACT: Diabetic retinopathy (DR), commonly classified as a microvascular complication of diabetes, is now recognized as a neurovascular complication or sensory neuropathy resulting from disruption of the neurovascular unit. Current therapies for DR target the vascular complication of the disease process, including neovascularization and diabetic macular edema. Since neurodegeneration is an early event in the pathogenesis of DR, it will be important to unravel the mechanisms that contribute to neuroretinal cell death in order to develop novel treatments for the early stages of DR. In this review we comment on how inflammation, the metabolic derangements associated with diabetes, loss of neuroprotective factors, and dysregulated glutamate metabolism may contribute to retinal neurodegeneration durin

SUBMITTER: Stem MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4071765 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature