Japanese researchers have found that a long-suspected molecule helps cause diabetic retinopathy, one of the leading causes of vision loss in the United States and the world.The molecule is erythropoietin, a protein hormone whose main function is to stimulate formation of red blood cells. The study by researchers at Kyoto University found excessively high levels of erythropoietin in the eye fluid of patients with diabetic retinopathy.The 73 patients in the study, all of whom had diabetes, were in the last stages of retinopathy, in which overgrowth of blood vessels in the eye destroys vision. Levels of erythropoietin were more than 12 times higher in their eyes than in the eyes of 71 people without diabetes whose levels were also measured.The findings appear in the Aug. 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
