ArticleFrontiers in neuroscience2026
Differential pericyte pathology in the human retina and brain in diabetes mellitus and Alzheimer's disease.
Article in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: In diabetic retinopathy, pericyte dysfunction, pericyte loss, and inner blood-retinal barrier (iBRB) dysfunction contribute to neurovascular unit (NVU) impairment. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is also associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and it has been hypothesized that DM-induced NVU impairment in brain capillaries, including pericyte dysfunction, may contribute to AD pathogenesis. In the present hypothesis-generating explorative study, we investigated pericyte characteristics in the iBRB in patients with type 2 DM with or without diabetic retinopathy (DR), and in the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in type 2 DM and AD. Methods: We analysed human retina and brain samples from controls and donors with DM and/or AD. Immunofluorescence staining for NG2, PDGFRβ, and αSMA was performed to analyse pericyte marker expression, vascular staining coverage, and pericyte cellular density on capillaries. Results: In control retina and brain, the average pericyte staining coverage of capillaries was 70-80% based on NG2 and PDGFRβ expression, but only 25% when based on αSMA expression. Pericyte densities were 7 and 9 pericytes/mm capillary length in the control retina and brain, respectively. DM and DR retinas showed marked density reductions to 4 pericytes/mm capillary length. In DM without DR, retinal vascular staining coverage of NG2 and PDGFRβ decreased to 50-56%. In DR retinas, vascular coverage based on NG2 staining was comparable to controls, whereas coverage based on PDGFRβ staining was significantly reduced to 45%. Such reductions were not observed in brain samples from donors with DM or AD; however, NG2 staining was reduced in all patient groups. Both NG2 and PDGFRβ staining were markedly reduced in brain samples from donors with both DM and AD. Discussion: These trends suggest a specific pericyte pathology in the brain in cases of DM and AD, particularly in patients with both conditions, which differs from the well-characterized pericyte loss observed in the diabetic retina.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.