Injury to both large and small blood vessels is the major clinical complication of having diabetes. High glucose concentrations injure blood vessels and other metabolic disturbances that accompany diabetes (high blood pressure, abnormal plasma lipid concentrations, obesity) combine to make matters worse. We are studying the early phases of blood vessel injury as occurs in diabetes to understand how we might prevent vascular injury and the associated morbidity (heart attack, stroke, kidney disease and visual impairment among them).