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Retinal overexpression of angiopoietin-2 mimics diabetic retinopathy and enhances vascular damages in hyperglycemia

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Abstract

Our previous data suggested that angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) is linked to pericyte loss, thereby playing an important role in diabetic retinopathy. In this study, we investigated the effect of retinal overexpression of human Ang-2 (mOpsinhAng2 mouse) on vascular morphology in non-diabetic and streptozotozin-induced diabetic animals. Pericyte (PC) coverage and acellular capillary (AC) formation were quantitated in retinal digest preparations after 3 and 6 months of diabetes duration. The degree of retinopathy in non-diabetic mOpsinhAng2 mice at 3 months (−21% PC, +49% AC) was comparable to age-matched diabetic wild type mice. Diabetic mOpsinhAng2 mice exhibited significantly worse vascular pathology than wild type counterparts at 6 months. Quantitative PCR revealed that human Ang-2 mRNA was highly overexpressed in retinas of transgenic mice. Our data demonstrate that overexpression of Ang-2 in the retina enhances vascular pathology, indicating that Ang-2 plays an essential role in diabetic vasoregression via destabilization of pericytes.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by grants from the DFG, the DDG and the GRK 880. The authors thank Petra Bugert, Nadine Dietrich and Valerie Schwarz for their grateful support.

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Correspondence to Yuxi Feng.

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Pfister, F., Wang, Y., Schreiter, K. et al. Retinal overexpression of angiopoietin-2 mimics diabetic retinopathy and enhances vascular damages in hyperglycemia. Acta Diabetol 47, 59–64 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-009-0099-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-009-0099-2

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