TY - JOUR AB - Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of blindness among the working‑age population in several countries. Despite the available treatments, some patients are diagnosed at the late stages of the disease when treatment is more difficult. Hence, it is crucial that novel targets are identified in order to improve the clinical therapy of DR. In the present study, an animal model of DR and a cell model using primary human retinal microvascular endothelial cells exposed to high glucose were constructed to examine the association between apoptosis signal‑regulating kinase 1 (ASK1)/p38 and NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) in DR. The results revealed that DR induced inflammatory response and microvascular cell proliferation. NLRP3 contributed to DR‑mediated inflammatory development and progression, which promoted the expression of inflammatory‑related cytokines. In addition, NLRP3 promoted the tube formation of retinal microvascular endothelial cells and angiogenesis. Moreover, further research indicated that the NLRP3‑mediated aberrant retinal angiogenesis in DR was regulated by ASK1 and p38. It was thus suggested that ASK1/p38 may be novel target for the treatment of DR. AD - Department of Ophthalmology, The Affiliated Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214002, P.R. China AU - Zou,Wenjun AU - Luo,Shasha AU - Zhang,Zhengwei AU - Cheng,Libo AU - Huang,Xiaoli AU - Ding,Nannan AU - Pan,Ying AU - Wu,Zhifeng DA - 2021/02/01 DO - 10.3892/ijmm.2020.4833 EP - 740 IS - 2 JO - Int J Mol Med KW - diabetic retinopathy inflammatory ASK1/p38 NLRP3 angiogenesis PY - 2021 SN - 1107-3756 1791-244X SP - 732 ST - ASK1/p38‑mediated NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathway contributes to aberrant retinal angiogenesis in diabetic retinopathy T2 - International Journal of Molecular Medicine TI - ASK1/p38‑mediated NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathway contributes to aberrant retinal angiogenesis in diabetic retinopathy UR - https://doi.org/10.3892/ijmm.2020.4833 VL - 47 ER -