Dear Colleagues,

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a multifactorial progressive disease characterized by an extremely complex pathogenesis. It involves different factors and a variety of pathophysiologic mechanisms, which cause the dysregulation of a number of mediators, including growth factors, cytokines/chemokines, vasoactive agents, and inflammatory and adhesion molecules. Neurodegeneration, oxidative stress, inflammation, and vascular changes have been found to play key roles in DR; however, further studies are needed to decipher the exact mechanisms leading to retinal dysfunction. The available therapies treat only the advanced stages of DR; therefore, current investigations focus on the development of new treatments, including antioxidants, neuroprotectants, anti-inflammatory, and vasculoprotective agents, that may prevent disease progression. Further technological advances in retinal imaging for screening the early pathology and its progression, together with new therapeutics, are essential in improving patient life quality and the burden on public health. The main goal of the present Special Issue is to attract contributions with state-of-the art findings related to the pathophysiology and therapeutics of DR. Potential topics may include, but are not limited to, an understanding of the mechanisms leading to neovascularization and cell death in DR, role of oxidative stress and inflammation, animal models of DR, therapeutic potential of nutraceuticals, new methods for drug delivery to the retina, retinal imaging for screening and early identification of the disease, proteomic and metabolomic approaches and gene therapy.

We warmly invite you and your colleagues to provide both original research and review articles, which will be peer-reviewed for publication in the open access journal Cells. We look forward to your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Paola Bagnoli
Prof. Dr. Giovanni Casini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cells is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• neurodegeneration
• oxidative stress
• inflammation
• vasculopathy
• nutraceuticals
• drug delivery
• retinal imaging
• proteomics
• metabolomics
• gene therapy