sptaial transcriptomics of high intraocular pressure and WT rats.

Previous studies indicated that activation of glial cells and inflammatory responses are triggering factors of glaucomatous optic neuropathy. In particular, neurotoxic reactive astrocytes have been found to play a significant role in retinal ganglion cell damage. Furthermore, research showed that activation of glial cells is not dependent on retinal ganglion cell injury, but rather a direct response to pathological elevation of intraocular pressure. However, the molecular mechanism by which elevated intraocular pressure triggers glial activation through mechanical forces remains unknown. By spatial transcriptome sequencing, our study revealed that the neurotoxic astrocyte would rapidly be reactivated in the optic nerve head under elevated intraocular pressure in vivo. we established the high IOP animal model by injecting hydrogel into the anterior chamber. 7 days after hydrogel injection, 2 different eyes from high IOP and wt animals were collect for cryosection. For spatial transcriptomic, two sagittal sections passing through the ONH region were selected as technical replicates, with a minimum distance of 20 μm between the two sections.