Abstract
Purpose :
Inflammation is a key driver of early retinal pathology in diabetic retinopathy. Inflammation is linked to disease features of diabetic retinopathy, including increased adhesion of leukocytes to the lumen of the retinal vasculature, or leukostasis, retinal hyperpermeability, and capillary occlusions. The current study aimed to correlate leukostasis with the presence of small caliber vessel occlusions and retinal hyperpermeability in an in vivo model of diabetic retinopathy via simultaneous imaging of retinal leukocytes and fluorescein angiography.
Methods :
The streptozocin-induced (STZ) model was used as the model of diabetic retinopathy. Diabetes was induced at age 4 weeks in C57BL/6J mice and confirmed when fasting plasma glucose became persistently elevated (>300 mg/dL). Experiments were performed at 10 weeks of hyperglycemia in 10 STZ mice and 10 littermate control mice. Retinal leukostasis was assessed by determining the number of adherent leukocytes within each vessel lumen. Quantitative fluorescein angiography (qFA) was performed to measure retinal vascular leakage. T-test and ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons post-hoc test were used to evaluate significant differences between groups. Values of p < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Results :
Diabetes increased qFA vascular leakage 2-fold (p<0.05) and retinal leukostasis by 60% (p<0.05). Retinal hyperpermeability and the number of small caliber vessel occlusions significantly correlated with the density of adherent leukocytes (p<0.05).
Conclusions :
Simultaneous imaging of retinal leukostasis and fluorescein angiography reveals the relationship between the density of leukocytes adherent to retinal blood vessels and the presence of retinal hyperpermeability and the number of retinal capillary occlusions in the STZ mouse model of diabetic retinopathy.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Imaging in the Eye Conference, held in New Orleans, LA, April 21-22, 2023.