title: Pericytes and the prevention of diabetic retinopathy.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Chung-Ang University Hospital, 82-1 Pil-dong, 2Ka Chung-ku, Seoul 100-272, South Korea. jtkim@cau.ac.kr
authors.forename: Jaetaek
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000975:Antioxidants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001766:Blindness / Q000517:prevention & control; D016923:Cell Death; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017127:Glycation End Products, Advanced; D006801:Humans; D020286:Pericytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D012160:Retina / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000494:pharmacology; D000093423:Glycated Serum Albumin
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D017127:Glycation End Products, Advanced; D012709:Serum Albumin; D000093423:Glycated Serum Albumin