The life expectancy of patients with diabetes has been significantly expanded, however along with thisincreased life expectancy has come an increased incidence of complications and morbidity. Much of themorbidity is associated with micorvascular complications with diabetic retinopathy (DR) being the mostprevalent. DR is caused by inappropriate activation of vasculogenesis and angiogenesis in the vessels of theretina. There is a genetic link for susceptibility to the development of DR based on familial aggregationstudies. This study will investigate candidate genes whose products are known to have a function inmicrovasculature maintenance and formation utilizing a well characterized type 1 diabetic population withlength of disease of at least 25 years to address the three aims of this project: 1) identifying gene(s) involvedwith susceptibility to diabetic retinopathy, 2) identifying genes involved with severity of diabetic retinopathyattained, and 3) identifying genes involved with length of diabetic retinopathy free type 1 diabetes. Thisinvestigation has the potential to illucidate mechanisms invovled with the development of diabeticretinopathy, which may improve identification of at risk individuals as well as open additional avenues fortherapy including preventive therapies.
| Charles, Bashira A; Conley, Yvette P; Chen, Guanjie et al. (2011) Variants of the adenosine A(2A) receptor gene are protective against proliferative diabetic retinopathy in patients with type 1 diabetes. Ophthalmic Res 46:1-8 |
