Microglial activation protects from vascular degeneration in a rat model of inflammatory retinal vasoregression.. Microglial activation protects from vascular degeneration in a rat model of inflammatory retinal vasoregression.

Microglial activation represents a hallmark of inflammatory retinal diseases like diabetic retinopathy. Anti-inflammatory and especially microglia modulating approaches have been proposed as therapies for these diseases. In this study, clodronate-coated liposomes were intravitreally injected to investigate the effects of increased microglial activation on vasoregression in a model of retinal degeneration. Clodronate-coated liposomes, injected twice over a period of 5 weeks to study the effects of long term clodronate treatment on microglial activation, vasoregression (acellular capillary formation and pericyte loss) and to identify the pathways mediating the observed effects. Overall design: 9-weeks-old PKD rats receiving two intravitreal injections at 4 and 8 weeks of age with Clodronate-coated liposomes (PKD + Clodronate, 5 samples), Controlliposomes (PKD + Controlliposomes, 6 samples) or PBS (PKD + PBS, 5 samples), 9-weeks-old uninjected PKD rats (PKD, 6 samples), 9-weeks-old SD rats receiving two intravitreal injections at 4 and 8 weeks of age with Clodronate-coated liposomes (SD + Clodronate, 6 samples) were analyzed, 9-weeks-old uninjected SD rats served as control group (SD, 6 samples).