Animal models of diabetic retinopathy: doors to investigate pathogenesis and potential therapeutics

Effective and validated animal models are valuable to investigate the pathogenesis and potential therapeutics for human diseases. There is much concern for diabetic retinopathy (DR) in that it affects substantial number of working population all around the world, resulting in visual deterioration and social deprivation. In this review, we discuss animal models of DR based on different species of animals from zebrafish to monkeys and prerequisites for animal models. Despite criticisms on imprudent use of laboratory animals, we hope that animal models of DR will be appropriately utilized to deepen our understanding on the pathogenesis of DR and to support our struggle to find novel therapeutics against catastrophic visual loss from DR.