Diabetic nephropathy is the number one cause of renal failure requiring dialysis in our country.
Diabetic retinopathy impairs eyesight and is the nation's leading cause of nontraumatic blindness. The Center is the first JDRF Center to focus exclusively on these three complications of diabetes. More than 60 percent of people with diabetes suffer from some form of neuropathy, and each year up to 25,000 people become blind because of diabetes. The researchers at the JDRF Center for the Study of Complications in Diabetes have generated a new theory on how this damage occurs. Their studies indicate that high glucose produces a series of interrelated changes in the way the body metabolizes proteins and lipids in the nerve, kidney and eye.