A new, independent pathway that can offer targets for preventing and treating diabetic eye disease has been discovered by scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center.

In diabetes patients, high blood glucose levels can end up killing certain cells in the eyes and kidneys, which is why diabetes is the leading cause of adult blindness and of kidney failure.

In the past, scientists identified one main route for this destruction-high glucose produces oxidative stress through the NF-kB molecular pathway-but success has been elusive for drugs targeting that pathway.

"Previously it was thought that oxidants are the major pathway, but antioxidants don't seem to work in clinical trials," Nature quoted Dr. George L. King as saying.

"That clinical observation made it clear that we don't know all the mechanisms involved," says Dr. Pedro Geraldes, lead author for the paper.

Geraldes studied the effects on retinal pericytes (supportive tissue cells found near small blood vessels) in a bid to expand the search for what goes wrong as glucose levels climb.

For a long time, scientists have known that the protein PDGF, a growth factor, is essential to a cell-survival pathway that is required to keep these retinal cells alive.