Pericytes and the prevention of diabetic retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy is a leading cause of blindness and one of the hallmarks of early diabetic retinopathy is death of pericytes. I studied the effect of glycated albumin (GA) on the retinal pericyte death and assessed the protective effects of some well-known antioxidant materials. GA produced a progressive cytotoxic effect in a near time and dose dependent manner. Among the antioxidant pretreatments, L-ascorbic acid, Trolox, produced a reduction of GA-induced cytototoxicity. N-Acetyl-L-cysteine showed partial effect but taurine had no effect on the GA-toxicity. In conclusion, I demonstrated the effect of GA on the retinal pericyte death and some antioxidants effectively prevented the GA-induced cell death in pericytes.