Frequent low blood sugar levels in diabetics can further damage the eye. Photo: File
New York: Although diabetics are at risk of vision loss, patients who have frequent and sudden low blood sugar may have slightly more eye damage.
Thus, frequent low blood sugar can also complicate vision problems associated with diabetes. Johns Hopkins University of Medicine scientists said that as the patient’s sugar decreases, the supply of oxygen to the cells associated with the eye is also affected, and thus this process continues to occur many times and vision may decrease.
In this study, human and rat eye cells with retinas were developed in a laboratory environment by suddenly starving them of sugar and the effects were noted. The research is published in the latest publication of the research journal Cell Reports.
University scientist Akrit Sodhi and his colleagues say that diabetics who take insulin may experience further eye damage if their blood sugar levels drop below normal twice a day. According to him, diabetic patients who do not take insulin can also experience this condition and it can also happen during sleep. On the one hand, this reduces the supply of oxygen to the eye, on the other hand, the cellular proteins of the retina increase, thereby thickening the blood vessels and can worsen the vision already affected by diabetes.
Although more research is needed on this entire process, according to doctors, this change occurs at the cellular and molecular level of the eye. Then the expression of a gene called GLUT1 increases and a type of protein that further reduces oxygen is produced.
Scientists have also found out the complete mechanism (pathway) of this process and are now doing more research.
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