糖尿病性视网膜病变（DR）为我国五大致盲眼病之一，为发达国家工作人群的首位致盲性眼病。在前期研究中，我们证实DR是以视网膜神经元退行性变和微血管病变为特征的神经血管性疾病；在DR发病机制研究的基础上，提出并完善了视网膜神经血管单元的概念性框架。课题组提出针对DR的临床诊疗手段应从单一治疗微血管病变的干预模式转向以保护视网膜微血管与神经元的综合治疗。本课题的研究目标即为寻找和验证能用于DR早期诊断，特别是能够对视网膜神经血管单元病变的发生具有预警作用，在DR干预方面可成为干预靶点的生物学标记物。研究中，我们将以视网膜神经血管单元做为研究靶体，通过DR患者的血循环及眼玻璃体microRNA（miRNA）指纹谱，全基因组DNA甲基化谱及血清代谢组研究，找出DR与正常人，与糖尿病患者差异性表达的生物学标记物，为DR的早期分子诊断和确定干预的新靶点提供依据。

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the most popular blinding eye diseases in China. It is the leading cause of blindness in the working population (40-70 years old) of the developed countries. Base on our previous pathological study on DR which proved that DR is a neurovasuclar disease, we proposed and improved a conceptual framework of retinal neurovascular unit, suggesting that clinical intervention should transform the single intervention of micro-vascular damage to the comprehensive protection of both micro-vascular and retinal neurons. This project aims to find the capable biological markers, which could predict the early pathological changes of retinal neurons, particularly the neurovascular unit, and further to find novel interventional targets. In this study, we will investigate the Genome-Wide microRNA fingerprint, DNA methylation profiles and metabolomics in the vitreous and serum in patients with DR and diabetes, providing the conceptual basis for molecular diagnosis of early diabetic retinopathy and new targets for intervention.