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Updated: Mar 13, 2026

Assessment of Vascular Function in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease
Published on: June 16, 2014
Diabetic nephropathy and endothelial dysfunction: Current and future therapies, and emerging of vascular imaging for
Wilson Kc Leung1, L Gao1, Parco M Siu1
1Department of Health Technology and Informatics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, HKSAR, China.
Abstract:
An explosion in global epidemic of type 2 diabetes mellitus poses major rise in cases with vascular endothelial dysfunction ranging from micro- (retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy) to macro-vascular (atherosclerosis and cardiomyopathy) conditions. Functional destruction of endothelium is regarded as an early event that lays the groundwork for the development of renal microangiopathy and subsequent clinical manifestation of nephropathic symptoms. Recent research has shed some light on the molecular mechanisms of type 2 diabetes-associated comorbidity of endothelial dysfunction and nephropathy. Stemming from currently proposed endothelium-centered therapeutic strategies for diabetic nephropathy, this review highlighted some most exploited pathways that involve the intricate coordination of vasodilators, vasoconstrictors and vaso-modulatory molecules in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. We also emphasized the emerging roles of oxidative and epigenetic modifications of microvasculature as our prospective therapeutics for diabetic renal diseases. Finally, this review in particular addressed the potential use of multispectral optoacoustic tomography in real-time, minimally-invasive vascular imaging of small experimental animals for preclinical renal-kinetic drug trials.
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