title: Ethyl pyruvate prevents methyglyoxal-induced retinal vascular injury in rats.
abstract: Pyruvate is an endogenous antioxidant substance. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects of ethyl pyruvate (EP) on retinal vascular injury in diabetic retinopathy. To investigate the protective effect of EP on vascular cell apoptosis and blood-retinal barrier (BRB) breakage, we have used intravitreally methylglyoxal-(MGO-) injected rat eyes. Apoptosis of the retinal vascular cell that was stimulated by the intravitreal injection of MGO was evidently attenuated by the EP treatment. EP exerts inhibitory effect on MGO-induced vascular cell apoptosis by blocking oxidative injury. In addition, EP treatment prevented MGO-induced BRB breakage and the degradation of occludin, an important tight junction protein. These observations suggest that EP acts through an antioxidant mechanism to protect against oxidative stress-induced apoptosis in retinal vessels.
authors.affiliation: Korean Medicine Based Herbal Drug Research Group, Herbal Medicine Research Division, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, 1672 Yuseongdaero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-811, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Junghyun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yun Mi
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Chan-Sik
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Eunjin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.forename: Kyuhyung
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jo
authors.forename: So Dam
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Jin Sook
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Kim