HCAR - Hershey Center for Applied Research. South Centrals Pennsylvania's Premier Research Park Located Adjacent to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine.

Metabolic Diseases

The vision of HCAR is not just to help prevent disease through research, but also to help those living with diseases to avoid tragic complications. This visionary approach characterizes the work of the metabolic researchers in the HCAR community.

Penn State Institute for Diabetes and Obesity (PSIDO) is a collaboration of scientists, health care providers, and patients friends whose continued goal is to increase the scientific and medical knowledge needed to eradicate obesity and diabetes and help those with obesity and diabetes to live better lives. The collaboration includes scientists from across Penn State with leadership from the College of Medicine at the Hershey Campus and the College of Health and Human Development on the University Park Campus. Also involved is a growing network of health care providers, clinics and hospitals across central Pennsylvania committed to making a difference. Through research, health education, treatment, and professional development, PSIDO envisions itself as being a center of excellence in the prevention and control of obesity diabetes.

A significant research area in the College of Medicine is diabetic retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy is a leading cause of blindness. One of the characteristic features of diabetes is abnormal leakage of small blood vessels in the retina and kidney. Normal vision requires all the cells in the retina to work together properly. Our approach to understanding how the retina malfunctions in diabetes is based on our observation that the normal interactions between the three main cellular components -- neurons, glial cells and tiny capillaries (vessels) -- are disturbed.

We believe that diabetes changes cellular interactions in a variety of ways, including altered blood-retinal barrier (BRB) induction, modified neurotransmitter (Glu) recycling, diminished metabolic support for neurons by glia, as well as leaking tight junctions (TJ). A cure for diabetic retinopathy relies on an ability to understand the multiple facets of the disease. An interdisciplinary team of scientists with expertise in Ophthalmology, Physiology, Cellular and Molecular Biology and Neuroscience, the group's goal is to characterize the cellular and molecular mechanisms that lead to vision impairment in diabetes and to generate novel treatments to cure diabetic retinopathy.

The Penn State Hershey Retina Research Group has found that diabetes reduces retinal vascular tight junction protein (occludin) expression coincident with increased vascular permeability and are now investigating the regulation of occludin expression in diabetic rats and in retinal endothelial cells in culture. We have observed that the normal interactions between neurons, glial cells and vascular cells are disturbed in the diabetic retina. Our research is aimed at finding a therapy to restore these interactions and, ultimately, to prevent or cure diabetic retinopathy.

Back to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine