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Stem cells and diabetic retinopathy: From models to treatment

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Abstract

Diabetic retinopathy is a common yet complex microvascular disease, caused as a complication of diabetes mellitus. Associated with hyperglycemia and subsequent metabolic abnormalities, advanced stages of the disease lead to fibrosis, subsequent visual impairment and blindness. Though clinical postmortems, animal and cell models provide information about the progression and prognosis of diabetic retinopathy, its underlying pathophysiology still needs a better understanding. In addition to it, the loss of pericytes, immature retinal angiogenesis and neuronal apoptosis portray the disease treatment to be challenging. Indulged with cell loss of both vascular and neuronal type cells, novel therapies like cell replacement strategies by various types of stem cells have been sightseen as a possible treatment of the disease. This review provides insight into the pathophysiology of diabetic retinopathy, current models used in modelling the disease, as well as the varied aspects of stem cells in generating three-dimensional retinal models. Further outlook on stem cell therapy and the future directions of stem cell treatment in diabetic retinopathy have also been contemplated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Technology Durgapur, Durgapur, 713209, West Bengal, India

    Bihan Saha & Om Saswat Sahoo

  2. Autonomous State Medical College, Fatehpur, 212601, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Akshita Roy

  3. Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, 10124, Turin, Italy

    Elena Beltramo

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  1. Bihan Saha
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  2. Akshita Roy
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  3. Elena Beltramo
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  4. Om Saswat Sahoo
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BS: Writing—original draft, review & editing. AR: Writing—review & editing. EB: Idea development and Manuscript revision. OSS: Manuscript revision and figure preparation. All the authors read and approved the final review draft.

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Correspondence to Om Saswat Sahoo.

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Saha, B., Roy, A., Beltramo, E. et al. Stem cells and diabetic retinopathy: From models to treatment. Mol Biol Rep 50, 4517–4526 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-023-08337-0

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