Jennifer M Enright, Sheng Zhang, Christina Thebeau, Emily Siebert, Alexander Jin, Veda Gadiraju, Xiaodong Zhang, Shiming Chen, Clay F Semenkovich, Rithwick Rajagopal
Fenofibrate slows the progression of clinical diabetic retinopathy (DR), but its mechanism of action in the retina remains unclear. Fenofibrate is a known agonist of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα), a transcription factor critical for regulating metabolism, inflammation and oxidative stress. Using a DR mouse model, db/db , we tested the hypothesis that fenofibrate slows early DR progression by activating PPARα in the retina. Relative to healthy littermates, six-month-old db/db mice exhibited elevated serum triglycerides and cholesterol, retinal gliosis, and electroretinography (ERG) changes including reduced b-wave amplitudes and delayed oscillatory potentials...
December 31, 2020: Journal of Clinical Medicine