Diabetes-related changes in the protein composition and the biomechanical properties of human retinal vascular basement membranes.

ABSTRACT: Basement membranes (BMs) are specialized sheets of extracellular matrix that outline epithelial cell layers, muscle fibers, blood vessels, and peripheral nerves. A well-documented histological hallmark of progressing diabetes is a major increase in vascular BM thickness. In order to investigate whether this structural change is accompanied by a change in the protein composition, we compared the proteomes of retinal vascular BMs from diabetic and non-diabetic donors by using LC-MS/MS. Data analysis showed that seventeen extracellular matrix (ECM)-associated proteins were more abundant in diabetic than non-diabetic vascular BMs. Four ECM proteins were more abundant in non-diabetic than in diabetic BMs. Most of the over-expressed proteins implicate a complement-mediated chronic inflammatory p

SUBMITTER: Halfter W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5746242 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature