PLVAP in diabetic retinopathy: A gatekeeper of angiogenesis and vascular permeability

Nowadays, approximately 4 million people worldwide experience blindness or severe vision loss caused by diabetic retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy is a multifactorial disease that can progress from minor changes in vascular permeability, into a proliferative retinal disorder. The increasing incidence of diabetes diagnosis and lack of effective treatments make the development of new therapies an urgent issue. Previous studies have reported increased plasmalemma vesicle-associated protein (PLVAP) expression in the retinal vasculature of diabetic retinopathy patients, which co-localized with vascular permeability. In this thesis, the role of PLVAP in development and progression of diabetic retinopathy is explored. The performed in vitro and in vivo research revealed the key role of PLVAP in regulating Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF)-induced angiogenesis and increased vascular permeability. This makes PLVAP an interesting, endothelial cell-specific therapeutic target for diabetic retinopathy.