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Insulin treatment normalizes retinal neuroinflammation but not markers of synapse loss in diabetic rats.

ABSTRACT: Diabetic retinopathy is one of the leading causes of blindness in developed countries, and a majority of patients with type I and type II diabetes will develop some degree of vision loss despite blood glucose control regimens. The effects of different insulin therapy regimens on early metabolic, inflammatory and neuronal retinal disease processes such as retinal neuroinflammation and synapse loss have not been extensively investigated. This study compared 3 months non-diabetic and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic Sprague Dawley rats. Diabetic rats received either no insulin treatment, systemic insulin treatment beginning after 1 week uncontrolled diabetes (early intervention, 11 weeks on insulin), or after 1.5 months uncontrolled diabetes (late intervention, 6 weeks on insulin). Changes in both whole animal metabolic and retinal inflammatory markers were prevented by early initiation of insulin treatment. These metabolic and inflammatory changes were also normalized by the later insulin intervention. Insulin treatment begun 1 week after diabetes induction ameliorated loss of retinal synapse markers. Synapse markers and presumably synapse numbers were equivalent in uncontrolled diabetes and when insulin treatment began at 1.5 months of diabetes. These findings are in agreement with previous demonstrations that retinal synapses are lost within 1 month of uncontrolled diabetes and suggest that synapses are not regained with glycemic control and restoration of insulin signaling. However, increased expression of metabolic and inflammatory markers associated with diabetes was reversed in both groups of insulin treatment. This study also emphasizes the need for insulin treatment groups in diabetic retinopathy studies to provide a more faithful modeling of the human condition.

SUBMITTER: Masser DR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4122586 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Insulin treatment normalizes retinal neuroinflammation but not markers of synapse loss in diabetic rats.

Masser Dustin R DR VanGuilder Starkey Heather D HD Bixler Georgina V GV Dunton Wendy W Bronson Sarah K SK Freeman Willard M WM

Experimental eye research 20140612

Diabetic retinopathy is one of the leading causes of blindness in developed countries, and a majority of patients with type I and type II diabetes will develop some degree of vision loss despite blood glucose control regimens. The effects of different insulin therapy regimens on early metabolic, inflammatory and neuronal retinal disease processes such as retinal neuroinflammation and synapse loss have not been extensively investigated. This study compared 3 months non-diabetic and streptozotocin ...[more]

PMID: 24931083

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Project description:The effect of corticosterone on protein turnover in skeletal muscle was investigated in growing rats. Protein synthesis was measured in vivo by the constant infusion of [(14)C]tyrosine. The extent to which any effect of corticosterone is modulated by the hyperinsulinaemia induced by steroid treatment was examined by giving the hormone not only to adrenalectomized rats but also to streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats maintained throughout the treatment period on two dosages of insulin by an implanted osmotic minipump. Approximate rates of protein degradation were also estimated in some cases as the difference between synthesis and net change in muscle protein mass. Measurements were also made of free 3-methylhistidine concentration in muscle and plasma. At 10mg of corticosterone/100g body wt. per day, growth stopped and muscle wasting occurred, whereas at 5 mg of corticosterone/100g body wt. per day no net loss of protein occurred. However, this low dose did induce muscle wasting when insulin concentration was regulated by a dose of 1.2 units/day. Protein synthesis was markedly depressed in all treated groups, the depression in the insulin-maintained rats being marginally more than in the hyperinsulinaemic adrenalectomized rats. The oxidative soleus muscle appeared to be less susceptible to the effect of the corticosterone than was the more glycolytic plantaris or gastrocnemius muscle. Any effect of the corticosterone on protein degradation was much less than its effects on protein synthesis. Where increases in the degradation rates appeared to occur in the rats treated with 10mg of corticosterone/100g body wt. per day, the increases were less than 20%. The free intracellular 3-methylhistidine concentrations were doubled in all groups treated with 5 mg of corticosterone/100g body wt. per day and increased 5-fold in the adrenalectomized rats treated with 10mg of corticosterone/100g body wt. per day, with no change in plasma concentration in any of the groups. It is therefore concluded that: (a) the suppression of protein synthesis is the main effect of glucocorticoids in muscle; (b) marked increases in insulin afford only minor protection against this effect; (c) stimulation of protein degradation may occur, but to a much lesser extent.

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Insulin treatment normalizes retinal neuroinflammation but not markers of synapse loss in diabetic rats.

Publications

Insulin treatment normalizes retinal neuroinflammation but not markers of synapse loss in diabetic rats.

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