Retinal capillary pericyte apoptosis in early human diabetic retinopathy.

Abstract

Retinal capillary pericyte apoptosis is a specific form of cell death which occurs during the early development of diabetic retinopathy. The significant decrease in the ratio of pericytes to endothelial cells and the predominant TUNEL-positive pericytes over endothelial cells suggest that a greater impact of apoptosis-related mechanisms occurs in pericytes than in endothelial cells and, thereby, a greater loss of pericytes takes place in early diabetic retinopathy. Apoptosis, therefore, is an important mechanism of pericyte dropout in the early diabetic retinopathy.