Retinopathy

Diabetes mellitus type 2 is associated with significant morbidity and mortality; and identifying new treatments for diabetes complications to be used alone or in combination with other therapies is a high priority. Hyperglycemia triggers proinflammatory pathways leading to damage in the kidneys, eyes and blood vessels; thus targeting proinflammatory lipid mediators called leukotrienes may represent a promising therapy for diabetes complications. This clinical trial seeks to investigate whether montelukast, a leukotriene antagonist, improves kidney, eye and vascular function in adult participants with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease.

This study will evaluate the use of autologous bone marrow derived stem cells (BMSC) for the treatment of retinal and optic nerve damage or disease.

This multicenter cross-sectional study will include a diverse population of adolescents and adults with CF. The overall Aim is to describe prevalence of diabetes microvascular complications and macrovascular surrogates in people with established CFRD.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the safety and image quality of the investigational dye, MB-102, compared to the control dye (fluorescein sodium) in healthy and diseased eyes using fluorescent angiography for retinal vascular disease diagnosis and monitoring.

The development of the retinal vascular network is completed during the third trimester of pregnancy and and the first 15 days of life of the newborn. This late maturation can be problematic in cases of preterm births and result in immature retinal vascularization, known as retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Among the various factors influencing retinal vascular development, the tissue content of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) appears to be a crucial element. In a previous project, OMEGA-ROP, we showed a difference in the blood bioavailability of omega-3 PUFAs in infants born at less than 28 weeks of amenorrhea who develop ROP compared to healthy newborns with no retinopathy. This study also showed that mothers experienced variations in the blood levels of omega-3 PUFAs that were contrary to the types of variations observed in their children. This suggests a sequestration of omega-3 PUFAs in the mothers of children who will develop ROP. This new project aims to better understand the underlying molecular mechanisms by studying the expression levels of placental fatty acid receptors in relation to the development of ROP in newborns.

The CIRCLE study is a single-center prospective observational study that enrolled individuals with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), while free of known dementia or stroke (both cerebral infarction and hemorrhage). The patients will receive neuropsychological testing, retinal digital images and multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Blood samples will also be collected. Recent small subcortical infarcts, lacunes, white matter hyperintensities, perivascular spaces, microbleeds, and brain atrophy will be evaluated on both baseline and follow-up brain MRIs. The investigators will explore the predictors of preogression of SVD and cognitive deficits.