Dry age-related macular degeneration like pathology in aged 5XFAD mice: Ultrastructure and microarray analysis
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ABSTRACT: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness in the elderly. There are two types of AMD: dry AMD and wet AMD. While laser-induced choroidal neovascularization has been used extensively in the studies of wet AMD by presenting the main features of human wet AMD, there was no established mouse model which fully recapitulates the cardinal features of human dry AMD. In this regard, lack of appropriate mouse model for dry AMD hampered the translational research on the pathogenesis and development of therapeutic agents. We recently suggested that 5XFAD mice could be a mouse model of dry AMD with regard to the amyloid beta (Aβ) related pathology. In this study, using transmission electron microscope, we analyzed ultrastructure of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) of 5XFAD mice. Of importance, aged 5XFAD mice had ultrastructural changes of RPE and Bruchâs membrane compatible with cardinal features of dry AMD, including loss of apical microvilli and basal infolding of RPE, increased thickness of Bruchâs membrane, basal laminar and linear deposits, and accumulation of lipofuscin granules and undigested photoreceptor outer segment-laiden phagosomes. Using a threshold of 1.2 fold difference, we found â564â differentially expressed genes of which â190â were up-regulated and â374â were down-regulated in the RPE complex of aged 5XFAD mice. These altered genes were implicated in the pathogenesis of AMD including inflammation and immune response-related genes and retinol metabolism-related genes. Taken together, we suggest that aged 5XFAD mice can be used for dry AMD mouse model. All 5XFAD mice used were heterozygotes with respect to the transgene, and non-transgenic wild-type littermate (WT) mice served as controls.
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
SUBMITTER: Sung Wook Park
PROVIDER: E-GEOD-85408 | biostudies-arrayexpress |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress
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