Pericytes (PC) are microvascular mural cells that make specific cell-to-cell contacts with the endothelial cells (EC). These cells are obligatory constituents of the microvessels including the retinal vasculature and they serve as regulators of vascular development, stabilization, maturation and remodeling. During early stages of diabetic retinopathy (DR), apoptotic loss of PC surrounding the retinal vasculature occurs. This may lead to reduced vessel stability, the onset of EC apoptosis, and subsequent retinal ischemia leading to angiogenesis and eventually, severe vision loss due to late proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). Similarly, diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a chronic kidney disease due to hyperglycemia that particularly affects renal PC. Chronic high blood glucose level causes migration of peritubular PC away from the capillary into the interstitial space, which destabilizes the micro vessels, resulting in microvascular rarefaction. In both diabetes associated complications, the identification of specific biomarkers is necessary to stabilize the PC at an early stage. This review largely covers the importance of PC towards the pathogenesis of diabetes associated complications, and their heterogeneity in healthy and angiogenic vasculature.

周细胞 (PC) 是微血管壁细胞，可与内皮细胞 (EC) 进行特定的细胞间接触。这些细胞是包括视网膜脉管系统在内的微血管的必需成分，它们充当血管发育、稳定、成熟和重塑的调节剂。在糖尿病性视网膜病变 (DR) 的早期阶段，视网膜脉管系统周围的 PC 发生凋亡性丢失。这可能会导致血管稳定性降低、EC 细胞凋亡的发生以及随后的视网膜缺血导致血管生成，并最终导致晚期增殖性糖尿病视网膜病变 (PDR) 导致的严重视力丧失。同样，糖尿病肾病 (DN) 是一种由高血糖引起的慢性肾脏疾病，特别影响肾 PC。慢性高血糖水平导致管周 PC 从毛细血管迁移到间质空间，这会破坏微血管的稳定性，导致微血管稀疏。在这两种糖尿病相关并发症中，识别特定生物标志物对于在早期稳定 PC 是必要的。这篇综述主要涵盖了 PC 对糖尿病相关并发症发病机制的重要性，以及它们在健康和血管生成脉管系统中的异质性。