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Advances in diabetic retinopathy research

 

Seattle, Wash. — Two studies presented this week at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology’s (ARVO) 2024 Annual Meeting in Seattle, Wash., delved into new realms of understanding regarding diabetic retinopathy. One study explored the correlation between biomarker-based stress measures and racial differences. The other study measured retinal blood flow changes using a custom murine Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging (LSCI) instrument.

Exploring biomarkers in diabetic retinopathy disparities

Young Sheng and his team investigated racial health differences in diabetic retinopathy (DR), specifically, how stress measures representing exposure to racism or poverty affect the risk of DR and if they contribute to racial differences between African Americans and Caucasians.  

Their study sought to test the weathering hypothesis, which suggests that long-term exposure to social and economic challenges can cause faster deterioration in health, possibly contributing to differences in health outcomes between racial groups. They found that the risk of any retinopathy or DR was associated with two weathering measures, phenotypic age advancement and homeostatic dysregulation. Homeostatic dysregulation explained around 20% of the Black-White racial difference in risk of having any retinopathy, with a similar but statistically indistinct estimate for racial disparity in DR.  

"These results suggest that biomarker-based stress measures may inform clinicians about which patients are at even higher risk of any retinopathy or DR, potentially guiding individualized screening recommendations or population-level health surveillance.” said Sheng, “The results also indicate that the racial disparities in any retinopathy and DR may be influenced by factors beyond race itself, opening possibilities for replicating this study and constructing ocular-specific weathering measures so that the weathering hypothesis may be further examined and communicated to the public." 

  • Abstract title: Biomarker-based stress measures as risk factors and mediators of diabetic retinopathy racial disparities
  • Presentation start/end time: Monday, May 6, 8:30 – 10:15am PT
  • Location: Exhibit/Poster Hall, Seattle Convention Center - Arch Building
  • Posterboard number: B0139

Laser imaging reveals retinal vascular changes in Alzheimer's model

Since the neural retina is an extension of the central nervous system (CNS) and exhibits similar pathology to that seen in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a team from the Medical College of Wisconsin in the U.S. used a LSCI instrument to investigate if they could identify possible AD biomarkers in the retinal hemodynamics of late-stage AD.

Alexander Tate and his team compared blood flow in the eyes of mice with late-stage AD and controls without dementia. They discovered animals with AD showed abnormal retinal blood flow and importantly, that several metrics parallel those known to be affected in the brain of humans with dementia, raising the possibility that non-invasive imaging of ocular hemodynamic changes may potentially serve as biomarkers for diagnosing AD.

“In this study, we show early evidence that laser speckle contrast imaging can rapidly and non-invasively detect small alterations in how the blood flows throughout the retina in a model of Alzheimer’s disease.” commented Tate, “If this technology is translated to humans it may serve as a new diagnostic tool for the detection of neurodegenerative diseases before the onset of cognitive impairment and as a way of monitoring the progression of other diseases with vascular involvement, such as diabetes or stroke.”

  • Abstract title: Laser speckle contrast imaging detects retinal hemodynamic alterations in the 5xFAD model of Alzheimer’s disease
  • Presentation start/end time: Wednesday, May 8, 3:00 – 3:15pm PT
  • Location: Yakima 1, Seattle Convention Center – Arch Building
  • Presentation number: 4931

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The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) is the largest eye and vision research organization in the world. Members include approximately 10,000 eye and vision researchers from over 75 countries. ARVO advances research worldwide into understanding the visual system and preventing, treating and curing its disorders. Learn more at ARVO.org.

Media contact:
Jenniffer Scherhaufer, MMC, CAE
1.240.221.2923
media@arvo.org

 

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