gms | German Medical Science

102. Jahrestagung der DOG

Deutsche Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft e. V.

23. bis 26.09.2004, Berlin

A new animal model for studying angiopoietin-2-dependent angiogenesis in the retina

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author Y. Feng - Faculty of Clinical Medicine Mannheim of the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg
  • F. vom Hagen - Faculty of Clinical Medicine Mannheim of the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg
  • P. Wagner - MPI for Vaskular Biology, Münster
  • S. Hoffmann - Faculty of Clinical Medicine Mannheim of the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg
  • J. Lin - Faculty of Clinical Medicine Mannheim of the University of Heidelberg;
  • U. Deutsch - MPI for Vaskular Biology, Münster
  • H. P. Hammes - Faculty of Clinical Medicine Mannheim of the University of Heidelberg;

Evidenzbasierte Medizin - Anspruch und Wirklichkeit. 102. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Ophthalmologischen Gesellschaft. Berlin, 23.-26.09.2004. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2004. Doc04dogDO.03.04

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dog2004/04dog021.shtml

Published: September 22, 2004

© 2004 Feng et al.
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Outline

Text

Objective

Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause for blindness in people of working age. Pericyte loss is the earliest morphological change in diabetic retinopathy. The Angiopoietin-Tie System plays a pivotal role in this process and retinal Angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) is upregulated just before the onset of pericyte loss.

Methods

We investigated a transgenic mouse line that overexpresses human angiopoietin-2 under the control of the mouse photoreceptor opsin promoter. To analyse physiological angiogenesis we used lectin-stained retinal whole mount preparations. The role of Ang-2 in pathological angiogenesis was investigated using the ROP model. Proliferative retinopathy is triggered by the hypoxia, which occurs after exposure to 75% Oxygen for five days. Nuclei of neovascularizations were counted on the vitreal side of the inner limiting membrane in PAS stained Paraffin sections.

Results

Analysis of developmental sprouting of the mouse retina revealed a significant increase in the outgrowth of the retinal vasculature in the transgenic mice compared with wild-type littermates. The hypoxiastimulus in the ROP significantly promotes retinal angiogenesis in the transgenic mice compared to wildtype littermates and age-matched controls kept under normoxic conditions.

Conclusions

We conclude that the transgenic mouse line, which overexpresses hAng-2 under the control of mOpsin promoter in the retina, is a suitable mouse model to analyse the function of Ang-2 in retinal angiogenesis. Our experiments confirmed that overexpression of Ang-2 leads to increased angiogenic sprouting in the retina. In further experiments we will study this animal model under diabetic conditions.