The lab is working on a new project examining the role of the oxidant/antioxidant balance in the vascular complications in diabetes, particularly focusing on pathology of large blood vessels. The non-obese diabetic mouse (NOD) develops diabetes spontaneously and is therefore a good model for Type I diabetes. We have found that the blood vessels of this mouse are dysfunctional even in the pre-diabetic animal, suggesting that many of the vascular abnormalities are not due to the high glucose but to something else. We believe that alterations in antioxidant levels set the stage for the vascular complications such as hypertension and atherosclerosis and that these are accelerated by the high glucose once diabetes is initiated. These studies have resulted in 2 manuscripts, one published and another one submitted. In addition, a Center Grant just recently submitted to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is on the subject of the Role of Oxidative Stress in Diabetes. This center grant includes investigators from the Webb-Waring, National Jewish Hospital, the VA Hospital and Children's Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh.