Abstract
Presentation Description :
Over 11 million people have vision loss due to the three leading causes of retinal disease: photoreceptor degenerations, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma. Transgenic and pharmacological approaches in mice have been critical for our understanding of the pathological mechanisms behind these retinal diseases and for developing novel treatment strategies. Using diabetic retinopathy as an example, this talk will highlight how the use of mouse models have identified the contribution of neuronal and vascular abnormalities in early and late stage diabetic retinopathy. Collectively, these studies have expanded the definition of diabetic retinopathy to include early neuronal dysfunction in addition to late stage vascular structure defects. With the ultimate goal of preventing vision loss, this talk will review existing and emerging treatments for diabetic retinopathy with an emphasis on how closely human studies have matched the findings reported in mouse models.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.