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1 From the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan; and 2 Department of Ophthalmology, Nagoya City University Medical School, Nagoya, Japan.
| Abstract |
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METHODS. Diabetes was induced in male Long-Evans rats by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (60 mg/kg). LY333531 (0.1, 1.0, or 10.0 mg/kg/d) was administered orally during a 4-week diabetic period. Leukocyte entrapment in the retinal microcirculation was quantitatively evaluated in vivo with acridine orange digital fluorography.
RESULTS. The number of leukocytes trapped in the retinal microcirculation of diabetic rats (mean ± SEM; 14.3 ± 1.3 cells/mm2) was significantly increased, compared with nondiabetic control rats (7.5 ± 0.3 cells/mm2; P < 0.0001). Oral administration of LY333531 significantly decreased the number of leukocytes trapped in the retinal microcirculation of diabetic rats (10.9 ± 0.6, 11.3 ± 0.7, and 10.4 ± 0.4 cells/mm2 with LY333531 0.1, 1.0, and 10.0 mg/kg/d, respectively; P < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS. Treatment with LY333531 attenuated the increase of leukocyte entrapment in the retinal microcirculation during the period of early diabetes. This effect may contribute to the improvement of abnormal retinal blood flow in early diabetes with LY333531. LY333531 might have a therapeutic efficacy in preventing microcirculatory flow disturbances by trapped leukocytes in the early diabetic retina.
| Introduction |
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In contrast to their beneficial role with immunologic and antimicrobial activity, leukocytes are involved in the pathogenesis of various pathogenic conditions including diabetes.5 Histologic evidence has suggested that microvascular occlusion and endothelial cell damage in the diabetic retina, which are primary events in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy, were associated with the presence of leukocytes.6 Recent in vivo studies have suggested that increased leukocyte entrapment in the early diabetic retina7 may be associated with vascular nonperfusion and vascular leakage.8 Therefore, leukocytes trapped in the diabetic retina may initiate a series of events leading to diabetic retinopathy.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate quantitatively the effectiveness of LY333531 treatment on leukocyte entrapment in the retinal microcirculation of diabetic rats in vivo.
| Methods |
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To examine whether the administration of PKC-ß inhibitor, LY333531 (Eli Lilly, Indianapolis, IN) can attenuate leukocyte entrapment in the retinal microcirculation of diabetic rats, LY333531 was administered orally at dosages of 0.1 (n = 8), 1.0 (n = 16), and 10.0 mg/kg/d (n = 8) for 4 weeks, from the time STZ was injected in the rats.
Acridine Orange Digital Fluorography
Leukocyte entrapment in retinal microcirculation was evaluated
with acridine orange digital fluorography, which has been previously
described in detail elsewhere.9
10
This technique uses a
scanning laser ophthalmoscope (Rodenstock Instruments, Munich,
Germany), coupled with a computer-assisted image analysis system, which
makes continuous high-resolution images of fundus stained by acridine
orange (Wako Pure Chemicals, Osaka, Japan). Acridine orange, a
metachromatic fluorochrome, is a widely used probe in biochemical and
cytochemical studies. The dye emits a green fluorescence when it
interacts with DNA. The argon blue laser was used for the illumination
source, with a regular emission filter for fluorescein angiography
because the spectral properties of leukocytes stained with acridine
orange are similar to those of sodium fluorescein.
Leukocyte entrapment was evaluated only once after a 4-week diabetic period in both groups of rats with and without LY333531 treatment, using one eye (right eye) of each rat. Immediately before acridine orange digital fluorography, rats were anesthetized with a mixture (1:1) of xylazine hydrochloride (4 mg/kg) and ketamine hydrochloride (10 mg/kg). The pupils were dilated with 0.5% tropicamide and 2.5% phenylephrine hydrochloride. A contact lens was placed on the cornea to maintain transparency throughout the experiments. Each rat had a catheter inserted into the tail vein and was placed on a movable platform. Body temperature was maintained between 37°C and 39°C throughout the experiment.
Acridine orange (0.1% solution in saline) was injected continuously through the catheter for 1 minute at a rate of 1 ml/min. At 30 minutes after the injection, the fundus was observed to evaluate leukocytes accumulated in the retinal microcirculation with the scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO; Rodenstock Instruments). The obtained images were stored on an S-VHS videotape to replay and evaluate leukocyte entrapment in retinal microcirculation quantitatively.
We analyzed the video recordings with an image analysis system, as described in detail elsewhere.9 10 In brief, the system consists of a computer equipped with a video digitizer (Radius, San Jose, CA) that digitizes the video image in real time to 640 horizontal and 480 vertical pixels with an intensity resolution of 256 steps. We evaluated the number of leukocytes trapped in retinal microcirculation 30 minutes after acridine orange injection, as described previously.10 Briefly, an observation area around the optic disc was determined by drawing a polygon surrounded by the adjacent major retinal vessels. The area was measured in pixels on a computer monitor, and the density of trapped leukocytes was calculated by dividing the number of trapped leukocytes that were recognized as fluorescent dots by the area of the observation region. The densities of leukocytes were calculated generally in eight peripapillary observation areas. The average density of individual areas was used as the number of leukocytes trapped in the retinal microcirculation for each rat.
After the experiment, the rat was killed with an overdose of anesthesia. The eye was enucleated to determine a calibration factor to convert values measured on a computer monitor (in pixels) into real values (in µm).
Statistical Analysis
Data are expressed as mean values ± SEM. The data were
analyzed using an analysis of variance, with post hoc comparisons
tested using Fishers protected least significant difference test.
Differences were considered statistically significant when the
probability value was less than 0.05.
| Results |
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| Discussion |
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A growing body of evidence has suggested various abnormalities of microvascular rheology in diabetes. Leukocytes become less deformable in diabetes, in contrast to their natural property, which includes a larger volume and greater rigidity than erythrocytes.16 This change would increase retinal microvascular occlusion by leukocytes. Moreover, leukocyte adhesion to retinal vascular endothelial cells would be increased in diabetes, supported by an in vitro examination showing increased adhesion of leukocytes after 24 hours exposure in a high-glucose condition.17 Adhesion of leukocytes to the vascular endothelium is known to be mediated by the adhesion molecules, including intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1. Recent studies demonstrated that elevated number of leukocytes was accompanied by upregulation of ICAM-1 in the diabetic rat retina8 and human retina.11 Expression of VCAM-1 was also significantly increased in cultured endothelial cells after high-glucose treatment for 24 hours.18 These alterations due to diabetes would contribute to increased leukocyte entrapment in the diabetic retina.
Recent reports have strongly enhanced the important role of PKC, especially ß isoform, in alterations of retinal blood flow due to diabetes.1 PKC-ß is preferentially activated in the retina, heart, aorta, and renal glomeruli of experimental diabetic animals.19 20 Activation of the PKC-ß has been shown to mimic the abnormal retinal blood circulation observed in early diabetes,20 and inhibition of PKC-ß with LY333531 has been shown to normalize diabetic abnormal circulation of various organs in diabetic rats.2 Harris et al.21 showed that microvascular flow resistance increased due to leukocyte plugging in the capillaries of skeletal muscle during experimental diabetes. Not only leukocytes plugged in the microcirculation, but also adhering leukocytes may cause a large increase of flow resistance.22 Accordingly, the ability of LY333531 to reduce leukocyte entrapment in the diabetic retina would contribute to its beneficial effect to ameliorate abnormal diabetic circulation by reducing microvascular flow resistance.
PKC is known to be a key regulatory protein with numerous substrates that affect nuclear and cytoplasmic events. Recent studies have suggested that PKC is involved in the expression of adhesion molecules on endothelial cells, such as ICAM-1 and VCAM-1. An in vitro study indicated that activation of PKC induces upregulation of ICAM-1 on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and subsequent leukocyte adhesion to endothelial cells.23 Another study suggested that expression of VCAM-1 on HUVECs is also mediated by PKC.24 Furthermore, blocking PKC activity has been shown to inhibit glucose-induced leukocyte adhesion in in vitro experiments.18 Because increased expression of ICAM-1 is reportedly involved in increased leukocyte entrapment in the diabetic retina,8 the antiadhesive effect of inhibiting PKC activity would account for a reduction of leukocyte entrapment in diabetic retina with LY333531. Moreover, PKC activation is also involved in vasocontractility at microvessels.1 Therefore, LY333531 may improve lower perfusion in the retina in the early stages of diabetes by inhibiting vasocontraction. The increased blood flow causes higher shear stress at the retinal microcirculation, which may result in the reduction of the number of static leukocytes in the diabetic retina.25 However, the present study does not include any experiments to elucidate possible mechanisms explaining the inhibitory effect of LY333531 on leukocyte entrapment in the diabetic retina. Further examinations will be needed to investigate the mechanisms of this interesting phenomenon.
In conclusion, the present study demonstrated the inhibitory effect of LY333531 on leukocyte entrapment in the diabetic retina. In light of the role leukocytes seem to play in diabetic retinopathy, treatment with LY333531 might have therapeutic efficacy in preventing the development of diabetic retinopathy.
| Footnotes |
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Submitted for publication October 21, 1999; revised January 24, 2000 and April 3, 2000; accepted April 11, 2000.
Commercial relationships policy: N.
Corresponding author: Junichi Kiryu, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan. kiryu{at}kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp
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