In patients with diabetes, the hyperglycaemia is known to promote high levels of diacylglycerol which activates protein kinase C (PKC) in the vascular tissues and leads to production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the retina. PKC activation is likely to play a key role in diabetic microvascular complications, particularly changes in vascular permeability and ischaemia in the re...

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most common complications of diabetes and is a leading cause of blindness in people of the working age in Western countries. A major pathology of DR is microvascular complications such as non-perfused vessels, microaneurysms, dot/blot hemorrhages, cotton-wool spots, venous beading, vascular loops, vascular leakage and neovascularization. Multiple mechanis...

diabetic retinopathy is the lead among causes of blindness in north america. glucose-induced endothelial injury is the most important cause of diabetic retinopathy and other vascular complications. extracellular signal-regulated kinase 5 (erk5), also known as big mitogen-activated protein kinase 1 (bmk1), is a member of mitogen-activated protein kinases (mapk) family. physiologically, it is cri...