Pericyte Presence In Retinas Of 12 Week Diabetic Mouse Models

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a significant decrease in the number of pericytes in the Ganglion Cell Layer (GCL) of diabetic mouse retinas at the 12 week time point of the disease. This decrease in pericytes is a clinical characteristic of the early stages of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR). DR affects a little less than half the 30.3 million diabetic Americans and a third of the 285 million diabetics worldwide (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017; “Facts About Diabetic Eye Disease”, 2015; Lee et al., 2015). Although it affects both retinal neurons and microvasculature, the time course of DR development and which of these systems it affects first, is still under investigation. This study quantitatively analyzed the presence of pericytes in mice twelve weeks after diabetes was induced via intraperitoneal streptozotocin injections. Retinas were fixed and immunostained with antibodies against markers for pericytes (?-NG2) and apoptosis (?-Caspase-3) and stained for cell nuclei (DAPI) and endothelial cells (Isolectin). Retinas were imaged with confocal microscopy. GCL pericytes were counted with ImageJ. The results can contribute to understanding the time course of DR’s pathology specific to pericytes and consequently, can aid in the development of targeted treatments.