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Updated: Oct 6, 2025
Quantification of Vascular Parameters in Whole Mount Retinas of Mice with Non-Proliferative and Proliferative Retinopathies
Published on: March 12, 2022
Inhibitory effect of maspinon neovascularization in diabetic retinopathy
1Department of Ophthalmology, Shenyang Fourth People's Hospital, Shenyang 110031, Liaoning Province, China.
Background:
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a serious and potentially blinding complication of diabetes mellitus. Retinal neovascularization is one of the main pathological features of proliferative DR, and inhibiting retinal neovascularization is a research focus.
Aim:
The aim was to evaluate the effect of intravitreal injection of recombinant human maspin on neovascularization in DR.
Methods:
An oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) mouse model was used to simulate neovascularization in DR. New born C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided to a normal control group, a maspin injection OIR group, and an OIR group. The mice in the maspin injection OIR group were injected with recombinant human maspin in the bilateral vitreous cavity on postnatal day P12, and those in the OIR group were injected with sterile phosphate buffered saline. The protein expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1α) in the retina was measured by western blotting, and the mRNA expression of VEGF and HIF-1α was measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction. The vascular cell nuclei that broke through the inner limiting membrane (ILM) were counted in haematoxylin-eosin stained retinal sections.
Results:
It was found that the number of vascular cell nuclei breaking through the ILM was 31.8 ± 8.75 in the OIR group, which was significantly more than that in the normal control group (P < 0.001). The number of vascular cell nuclei breaking through the ILM was 6.19 ± 2.91 in the maspin injection OIR group, which was significantly less than that in OIR group (P < 0.01). The relative protein and mRNA expression of VEGF and HIF-1α was significantly lower in the retinas in the maspin injection OIR group than in those in the OIR group (P < 0.01).
Conclusion:
Maspin inhibited neovascularization in DR by modulating the HIF-1α/VEGF pathway, which provides a potential and effective strategy for the treatment of DR.
