Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Diabetes-Associated Blindness Is Due To Low Blood Sugar

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Sinopsis

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ99O5AtU8W/Loss of vision due to retinal degeneration is a devastating complication of diabetes.  Now Johns Hopkins research ophthalmologists report in the journal Science Translational Medicine preclinical studies that demonstrate how low blood sugar episodes, known as hypoglycemia, that are experienced by diabetics trigger the development of the blinding retinal damage known as diabetic retinopathy.Studying diabetic mice, the investigators discovered that levels of the protein hypoxia-inducible factor or HIF increase as blood sugar levels decline.  HIF, in turn, initiates harmful retinal blood vessel leaks with exposure of retinal cells to toxic circulating elements.  This leads to the retinal degeneration characteristic of diabetic retinopathy.  Low blood sugar levels fail to induce this toxic chain reaction in non-diabetic mice.The best news is that a drug labeled as 32-134D capably blocks the production of HIF and the increase in retinal blood vessel permeability re