THURSDAY, Feb. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Salicylate drugs can reverse some of the early development of diabetic retinopathy in rats, including the death of retinal ganglion cells and capillary cells, without altering glycemia, according to the results of a study published in the February issue of Diabetes.
Timothy S. Kern, Ph.D., and colleagues from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, examined the effect of aspirin, sodium salicylate and sulfasalazine on the early stages of diabetic retinopathy in a rat model of diabetes.
The researchers found that all three salicylates inhibited the loss of neuronal cells from the retinal ganglion cell layer in short-term disease (two to four months) and inhibited the death of retinal capillary cells and formation of acellular capillaries in long-term disease (nine to 10 months). All three drugs also inhibited the transcription factor NF-kappaB and sulfasalazine inhibited the overexpression of inflammatory molecules in the diabetic retina. The drugs did not alter glycemia, according to the study.
"Salicylates, in doses administrated in our experiments, inhibited NF-kappaB and perhaps other transcription factors in the retina, were well tolerated and offered new tools to investigate and inhibit the development of diabetic retinopathy," Kern and colleagues conclude.
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