Ординатура / Хирургия / Библиотека им академика М.И. Перельмана / Книга_2589_Библиотеки_им_академика_М_И_Перельмана

pericyte- endothelial cell complex. Pericytes appear buried in the basement of the endothelial cells. Pericytes play a signicant role in checking endothelial cell proliferation. Furthermore, the pericytes regulate the expression of tight junction proteins that maintain the inner blood-retinal bar­rier. Pores (gap junctions) in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the basement membrane (BM) allow for the cell-to-cell crosstalk between the pericytes and the endothelial cells [11]. It is to be noted that pericytes do not have the potential to regenerate, while endothelial cells can prolifer­ate. The vascular endothelial cells and pericytes share similar insulin receptors. One of the signi­cant characteristics of diabetic microvascular dis­ease is insulin resistance by the endothelial cells and impaired endothelial repair by the endothe­lial progenitor cells [12]. Recently, a decrease in insulin-stimulated Angiopoetin-1 (Ang-1) secre­tion in a pericyte insulin receptor knock-out mice model led to reduced angiopoietin-Tie2 signal­ling. It caused excessive vascular abnormalities mimicking diabetic retinopathy [13]. The authors proposed that Insulin signalling controls Ang-1 secretion from the pericytes in a healthy state.