The cover picture shows a mouse retina that has been flat mounted and immunolabelled with isolectin to illustrate the distribution and density of retinal blood vessels. Tissue hypoxia leads to the loss of blood vessels in the central retina adjacent to the optic disc, and neovascularisation in the mid and peripheral retina. Retinal neovascularisation is a feature of hypoxic-induced retinopathy in infants, and of the proliferative stage of diabetic retinopathy. In the present issue of Diabetologia (54:2724–2735) Wilkinson-Berka et al. report that the renin inhibitor, aliskiren, reduces the development of microvascular injury in the retinas of mice with oxygen-induced retinopathy and rats with type 1 diabetes.
Cover credit: GENEVIEVE TAN/DEPARTMENT OF IMMUNOLOGY, MONASH UNIVERSITY
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