Paying attention to the differences and applications of animal models of diabetic retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a common complication of diabetes, and remains the leading cause of blindness among working-age individuals all over the world.Current treatments for DR mainly focus on the advanced stages of the disease and are associated with significant adverse effects.As the pathogenesis of DR is not thoroughly revealed, the development of more effective therapy of DR is challenging, in which a good DR animal model is essential.At present, these animal models involve mammals, non-mammals and other species.The modeling methods also include chemical injection, high glucose diet, genetic engineering and ex vivo retinal explant cultures.Although most of the models discussed, especially the rodent models, have demonstrated the basic features of NPDR, the key feature of human PDR (pre-retinal neovascularization secondary to diabetes per se) is not recapitulated in any diabetic animal models.Therefore, choosing the appropriate DR animal model according to the purpose of research will be very important in understanding development of the disease and new approaches that prevent or delay the onset of DR.