May 13, 2010 
Tropical zebra fish have proved very useful in exploring ways in which diabetes damages the retina and can lead to blindness… In addition that they provide us with hours of magical, hypnotizing vacation, tropical fish have joined the large number of animals that are the subject of research for the purpose of improving our health.
A new model of diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes that can lead to blindness, which are offered by zebra fish indicate that cells in the back of the eye that are sensitive to light (cones) die at the beginning of the disease, and protect those cells that could help in slowing vision loss, said docotr Brendan Kennedy,from the University of Dublin and a leading man for Conway Institute, which conducts research. Protecting neurons cones could offer another form of therapy.
Kennedy stresses that the goal of the research is to better understand diabetic retinopathy, which is responsible for the blindness of about 2.5 people worldwide, and it will do so that it will concentrate on the cones.
In the initial stages of the disease, blood vessels behind the eye become permeable, and in the late stage those grow in curves. Researchers are focusing on this late stage to find a cure for a condition that leads to vision loss.
“We are not yet sure what happens in humans, because most of the tissue examination is after death, but there is some evidence that people lose their vision function before the proliferative phase of the disease [late],” says doctor Kennedy.
Taken from: www.ordinacija.hr Author: K. Horvat