Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a common complication of diabetes due to abnormalities in retinal blood vessels. Initially, the retinal vessel changes are non-proliferative, thus termed as non-proliferative DR (NPDR). As NPDR progresses, the micro-vessels leak to form macular edema or even close off to cause macular ischemia. Both forms of lesions can lead to the partial loss of vision or blurry.

KBI has identified spontaneous NPDR in diabetic monkeys which recapitulates all the characteristics of as occur in human DR. Both macular edema and ischemia have been detected using fundus photograph (FP), fluorescein angiography (FA) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) as exemplified below.

Case 1: Fasting blood glucose=349 mg/dL, HbA1C=14%

Case 2: Fasting blood glucose=145 mg/dL, HbA1C=5.4%