Journal article
Retinal capillary pericyte apoptosis in early human diabetic retinopathy
Chinese medical journal, v 110(9), pp 659-663
Sep 1997
PMID: 9642318
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
To investigate the nature of retinal capillary pericyte dropout in early human diabetic retinopathy.
In the present study, neural retinas of 12 postmortem eyes from 6 patients (3 diabetic and 3 nondiabetic) were first fixed in buffered formaldehyde and then digested with trypsin. The preparations of trypsin-digested retinal blood vessels were stained with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) technique and then with perdiodic acid-Schiff technique (PAS), and counter-stained with hematoxylin to evaluate DNA fragmentation of cell nuclei and diabetic changes of retinal capillaries.
TUNEL-positive apoptotic pericytes were observed in retinal capillaries in all three diabetic patients in this study. The TUNEL-positive pericytes were presented as darker stained cells with PAS-hematoxylin staining. A few TUNEL-positive retinal capillary endothelial cells were discovered in both eyes of one of the three diabetic patients. Neither TUNEL-positive pericytes nor positive endothelial cells were found in the three nondiabetic patients. A variety of typical diabetic microvascular changes were noticeable with PAS-hematoxylin staining in trypsin-digested retinal preparations from diabetic patients. These changes included thickened capillary walls, microaneurysms, "ghost-cell"-appearance of pericytes, acellular segments of capillaries, and a decreased ratio of retinal capillary pericytes to endothelial cells. All of these changes are characteristics of diabetic retinal microangiopathy.
Retinal capillary pericyte apoptosis is a specific form of cell death which occurs during the early development of diabetic retinopathy. The significant decrease in the ratio of pericytes to endothelial cells and the predominant TUNEL-positive pericytes over endothelial cells suggest that a greater impact of apoptosis-related mechanisms occurs in pericytes than in endothelial cells and, thereby, a greater loss of pericytes takes place in early diabetic retinopathy. Apoptosis, therefore, is an important mechanism of pericyte dropout in the early diabetic retinopathy.
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Details
- Title
- Retinal capillary pericyte apoptosis in early human diabetic retinopathy
- Creators
- W Li - Peking Union Medical College HospitalM YanoffX LiuX Ye
- Publication Details
- Chinese medical journal, v 110(9), pp 659-663
- Grant note
- EY06563 / NEI NIH HHS
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Ophthalmology [Historical]
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:A1997XZ26600001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-0031218095
- Other Identifier
- 991019167764204721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Medicine, Research & Experimental