BASIC RESEARCH PROJECT
Hyperglycemia-induced mitochondrial adaptation

Research Interests
The long delay between the onset of diabetes mellitus (DM) to the development of retinopathy suggests the existence of processes that prevent retinal pathogenesis. We recently discovered that prolonged hyperglycemia (HG) induces adaptation of retinal blood vessels cells. Furthermore, such adaptation appears to be beneficial: it protects the cells from death and inflammation. We will test the hypothesis that soon after the onset of DM, retinal vessels undergo adaption, which protects them from succumbing to retinopathy that occurs only after loss of such adaption.

The long-term goal of this proposal is to overcome existing roadblocks that prevent us from developing approaches to prevent and /or delay diabetic retinopathy (DR). We will accomplish this by learning the mechanism by which HG induces adaptation, i.e. protection from progression to DR. This information will birth a new therapeutic strategy, namely enforcing and/or restoring mitochondrial adaptation as an approach to prevent patients with DM from developing DR.