You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Original Article
Mitochondria- and caspase-dependent cell death pathway involved in neuronal degeneration in diabetic retinopathy
  1. T Oshitari1,2,3,
  2. S Yamamoto1,
  3. N Hata1,
  4. S Roy2
  1. 1
    Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan
  2. 2
    Departments of Medicine and Ophthalmology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA
  3. 3
    Department of Ophthalmology, Kimitsu Central Hospital, Kisarazu, Japan
  1. T Oshitari, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Inohana 1-8-1, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Chiba, Japan; tarii{at}aol.com

Abstract

Background: Neuronal abnormalities are associated with the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. However, the mechanisms for neuronal cell death in diabetic retinopathy remain unclear.

Aim: To determine whether altered expression of Bax, caspase-9 and -3 is associated with degenerative neurons in diabetic retinopathy.

Methods: Immunohistochemistry was performed on cryosections obtained from five pairs of normal and five pairs of age-matched diabetic human retinas. Diabetic eyes had no proliferative diabetic retinopathy and no histories of photocoagulation or ocular surgery. In this study, Fluoro-Jade B (FJB) was used as a marker for identification of degenerative neurons.

Results: In diabetic retinas, Bax overexpression coexisted with FJB positive signals in the ganglion cell layer (GCL) compared with very low FJB levels in the normal retina. Increased level of the active forms of caspase-9 and -3 expressions coexisted with FJB positive cells in the GCL of diabetic retinas compared with those in normal retinas.

Conclusions: Upregulation of Bax, caspase-9 and -3 expression was associated with neuronal degeneration in diabetic retinopathy. The mitochondria- and caspase-dependent cell-death pathway may be, in part, associated with neuronal degeneration in diabetic retinas.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjo.2007.132308

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • This study is supported from Fight for Sight in United States of America and the Grant-in-Aid from The Eye Research Foundation for the Aged in Japan (TO), NEI, NIH (EY-14702), The American Diabetes Association and The Massachusetts Lion Eye Research Fund (SR).

    • None.

    • Ethics approval: All procedures involving human tissue were performed according to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki.