Iron Overload Accelerates the Progression of Diabetic Retinopathy in Association with Increased Retinal Renin Expression.

ABSTRACT: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of blindness among working-age adults. Increased iron accumulation is associated with several degenerative diseases. However, there are no reports on the status of retinal iron or its implications in the pathogenesis of DR. In the present study, we found that retinas of type-1 and type-2 mouse models of diabetes have increased iron accumulation compared to non-diabetic retinas. We found similar iron accumulation in postmortem retinal samples from human diabetic patients. Further, we induced diabetes in HFE knockout (KO) mice model of genetic iron overload to understand the role of iron in the pathogenesis of DR. We found increased neuronal cell death, vascular alterations and loss of retinal barrier integrity in diabetic HFE KO mice compared to

SUBMITTER: Chaudhary K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5813018 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature