Abstract
Purpose :
To develop a reliable method to detect retinal hypoxia as predictive biomarker for the risk of retinal cell damage in branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO). Also, to develop a reliable method to generate a mouse model of BRAO using laser-induced thrombosis of a major artery in the mouse retina.
Methods :
A reliable and reproducible model of laser-induced BRAO was developed in mice using rose bengal. To characterize retinal hypoxia in BRAO, pimonidazole immunostaining and HYPOX-4 molecular imaging methods were used. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) was used to characterize neuronal cell damage in the BRAO retina. Expression of mRNA in retinal tissues from BRAO and age-matched control retinas were analysed using qRT-PCR.
Results :
Occlusion of a branch retinal artery near the optic nerve head (ONH) caused a pattern of retinal tissue hypoxia covering about 12.5% of the entire retina. TUNEL positive cells were localised in the ganglion cells layer in BRAO retinal tissue cross-sections. In addition, qRT-PCR data analysis suggests that BRAO is associated with both inflammation and hypoxia.
Conclusions :
This study provides a reliable method for BRAO in mouse retina and demonstrates the utility of molecular imaging method to detect retinal hypoxia as predictive predictive biomarker for the risk of neuronal cell damage in BRAO. In addition, our data suggests that BRAO retinas are associated with inflammation and also with hypoxia associated neuronal cell damage.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.