Diabetes induces many pathological alterations within RBCs which have been shown to be transmitted to endothelial cells and elicit endothelial dysfunction. The role of RBCs as key players in eliciting endothelial dysfunction represent a major paradigm shift in our understanding of diabetes-induced vascular dysfunction and thus, RBCs might represent a novel therapeutic target in cardiovascular disease.
Hassanein et al. (Fri,) studied this question.