What is it about?
High blood glucose is associated with diabetic disease impacting many organs. Here we study the impact of elevated blood glucose on the vessels of the retina, one of the most common changes seen in human disease. In laboratory mice, however, we find that despite a year of elevated blood glucose does not impart changes to the retinal vessels that resemble the changes seen in the human over decades.
Featured Image
Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This work challenges a body of work in the field that suggest that vascular changes accompany a year of hyperglycemia in laboratory animals. Despite nearly half the normal lifespan of the mouse being severely hyperglycemic does not seem to impart strong changes in vascular patterning in mice. This suggests either a species difference, or alternatively the long time scales required for elevated blood glucose to impart change on the vascular indices typically measured in clinical diabetic retinopathy.
Perspectives
This research suggests that there may be important co-factors besides high blood sugar-alone that may drive diabetic remodeling of vessels. Because mice have other visual deficits in association with high blood sugar, this research points to an earlier deficit in neural performance that may precede the vascular changes that are typically tracked in clinical medicine today.
Jesse Schallek
University of Rochester
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: One year of hyperglycemia in the Ins2Akita mouse does not impart changes in retinal vascular patterning, PLOS One, May 2026, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0348363.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
