Modeling early pathophysiological phenotypes of diabetic retinopathy in a human inner blood-retinal barrier-on-a-chip

We developed a diabetic iBRB-on-a-chip that produces novel pathophysiological phenotypes and disease pathways in vitro that are representative of clinical diagnoses. Diabetic stimulation of the iBRB-on-a-chip mirrors DR features including pericyte loss, vascular regression, ghost vessels, and production of pro-inflammatory factors. We also report transcriptomic data from diabetic iBRB MVNs that may reveal novel targets, and examine pericyte-endothelial cell stabilizing strategies. Differential gene expression analysis of RNA-seq data for primary human retinal microvascular endothelial cells, pericytes and astrocytes in an iBRB-on-a-chip obtained for different timepoints and treatment conditions, from 3 replicate experiments.