The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation said that the findings could suggest new therapeutic targets for the treatment of proliferative diabetic retinopathy and macular edema, and could provide new opportunities for treating cerebral swelling caused by head injury, stroke and other conditions.
Dr Feener, director of Joslin’s Proteomics Core, which hosted the study, said: “By analyzing the protein composition in the human vitreous, we have identified a new group of molecules that may improve our understanding of the disease processes that contribute to diabetic retinopathy.
“By studying the actions of these proteins in both the retina and the brain, we have shown that our findings may have broad relevance for neurovascular leakage and swelling.”
Diabetic retinopathy is one of the most common complications of diabetes and is characterized by a range of abnormalities that develop from damage caused by high blood glucose levels. Proliferative diabetic retinopathy is diagnosed when the retina begins to form new blood vessels to counteract this damage, which in turn often bleed and blur or block vision.
More than 700,000 patients in the US have proliferative diabetic retinopathy, and more than 63,000 patients develop it annually.