Glucosinolates (GSLs) and their breakdown products, isothiocyanates (ITCs), are bioactive compounds with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticancer properties, mediated through key pathways such as Nrf2, NF-κB, and epigenetic regulation. However, their limited and variable bioavailability remains a key challenge. This review summarises the current clinical evidence on GSLs and ITCs, with a focus on their health effects and metabolic fate in humans. Recent findings on enzymatic and microbial metabolism are discussed, along with results from interventions involving whole vegetables, sprouts, and extracts. Although promising effects on blood pressure, lipid profiles, and glycaemic control have been observed, clinical studies are often limited by small sample sizes, study heterogeneity, and high inter-individual variability, particularly related to gut microbiota and host metabolic phenotype. Challenges like inconsistent biomarkers, formulation variability, and tolerability issues complicate data interpretation. To realise their full potential, larger, standardised, microbiome-informed trials with validated biomarkers and optimised delivery are needed to clarify host–compound–microbiome interactions and support evidence-based disease prevention strategies.

Diabetic retinopathy is a major eye complication in patients with diabetes mellitus, and it is the leading cause of blindness and visual impairment in the world. Chronic hyperglycemia induces endothelial damage with consequent vascular lesions, resulting in global vasculitis, which affects the small vessels of the retina. These vascular lesions cause ischemic conditions in certain areas of the retina, with a consequent increase in the release of pro-angiogenic mediators. In addition to pharmacological interventions for controlling the blood glycaemic level, the main strategies for treating diabetic retinopathy are the intravitreal injections of drugs, surgical treatments, and vitrectomies. The complexity of diabetic retinopathy is due to its close interactions with different cell types (endothelial cells, astrocytes, and Müller cells). The evaluation of the efficacy of novel pharmacological strategies is mainly performed through in vivo models. However, the use of different animal species leads to heterogenic results and ethical concerns. For these reasons, the development of new and reliable in vitro models, such as cell co-cultures and eye organoids, represents an urgent need in this area of research. This review features an overview of the in vitro models used to date and highlights the advances in technology used to study this pathology.