Molecular Research and Recent Advances in Diabetic Retinopathy: Second Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Diabetes symbolizes one of the most challenging health problems of the 21st century and is projected to affect 700 million people by 2045. The most devastating components of diabetes are its chronic complications, which lead to a high risk of morbidity and mortality, and an increased health system cost burden. A frequent long-term microvascular complication of type 1 and type 2 diabetes is diabetic retinopathy (DR), which is the leading cause of preventable blindness in working-age adults worldwide. The most pronounced risk factors for developing DR and its progression are longer diabetes duration, hyperglycemia, and hypertension. Besides these traditional risk factors, multiple cellular pathways and potential molecular mechanisms have also been implicated in diabetes-induced complications. These mechanisms include increased polyol pathway flux, increased advanced glycation end-product formation, abnormal protein kinase C activation, activation of the diacyl–glycerol pathway, and increased oxidative stress. In addition, aldose reductase, endothelial nitric oxide synthase, vascular endothelial growth factor, angiotensin conversion, and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 are some of the genes associated with the development of DR. Despite the declining trend of new visual impairment and blindness due to DR in developed countries over the past decades, it is still the leading cause of blindness in working-age people.

In light of this, we welcome submissions to this Special Issue that focus on molecular research and recent advances in DR. A thorough understanding of this harmful microvascular complication of diabetes is crucial to reduce the risk of blindness and disability in patients with diabetes.

Dr. Tomislav Bulum
Dr. Martina Tomić
Guest Editors

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• diabetes
• diabetic retinopathy
• complications
• vascular endothelial growth factor
• retina
• biomarkers

• Molecular Research and Recent Advances in Diabetic Retinopathy in Biomedicines (14 articles)