Animal Models of Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy threatens vision in millions of patients in the USA. Prolonged hyperglycemia causes irreversible pathological changes in the retina, leading to proliferative diabetic retinopathy with preretinal neovascularization and diabetic macular edema. Much of the disease progression appears similar between man and animal. Thus, animal models are essential in understanding the pathology of this disease and development of effective treatments. This chapter describes and discusses the use of the rat, mouse, and dog in diabetic retinopathy studies.