Fig. 1

CD31⁺ cells in the vitreous of patients with PDR are not all endothelial cells. a Fundus image depicting a patient with a healthy retina (left) and the vasculature and fibrovascular membrane of a patient with PDR (right). A fibrovascular membrane (arrow) is present overlying the retinal blood vessels, causing localized tractional retinal detachment in the superior macula. End-stage PDR eyes exhibit vitreous hemorrhage, which prevents a clear view of the pathological features that are present on the surface of the retina. b A diagram depicting the procedure for isolating CD31⁺ cells from the vitrectomy cassette obtained from patients with end-stage PDR. c Bar graph depicting the percentage of CD31⁺ cells present in each sample. The cell type proportion was estimated via CIBERSORT, after which the proportions of all cell types that expressed PECAM1 (the gene encoding CD31) in the peripheral retina reference dataset were combined. The data are presented as the means ± SDs, with each point representing a gene expression signature. d Scatter plot depicting the counts per million PECAM1 gene in the gene expression signatures of CD31⁺ cells isolated from vitrectomy cassettes. The mean values for each group are presented with dashed lines. e Principal component analysis (PCA) scores of the CD31^high and CD31^low gene expression signatures. The first two principal components are shown