PRKN and diabetes mellitus: Aldrich et al. (2017) observed that mitophagy was impaired in human corneal endothelial cells from DM patients. The mitochondria in these cells appeared swollen and contained dark inclusions, suggesting a disruption of mitophagy. Furthermore, Hu et al. (2019) reported that HG diminished the expression of Sirt3 in TKE2 mouse corneal ECs, which in turn reduced Parkin/PINK1-mediated mitochondrial autophagic flux.