New inflammation targeted strategy for retinal degeneration

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25893253
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Ophthalmology
• Research Institution: Jikei University School of Medicine
• Principal Investigator: HIDEO Kohno 東京慈恵会医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (60514536)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-08-30 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: マイクログリア / 加齢黄斑変性 / 網膜色素変性症 / 炎症

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Retinal degeneration (RD) is a direct reason of blindness. The photoreceptor cell death (PCD) is the direct featured process to blindness in RD. Though accumulating evidence suggests that microglia, a resident macrophage in the retina, and bone marrow derived macrophage can cause retinal inflammation which accelerates PCD, the details of how these cells activate during RD remains uncertain. Therefore, it is important to clarify which cells play a dominant role in fueling retinal inflammation. However distinguishing between microglia and macrophage is difficult by using conventional technique such as cell marker. In current study, we established two chemokine receptor visualized RD mouse models, named as Mertk-/-Cx3cr1GFP/+Ccr2RFP/+ mice. Cx3cr1-GFP positive microglia and Ccr2-RFP positive macrophage were distinguishable in the retina of Mertk-/-Cx3cr1GFP/+Ccr2RFP/+ mice. Mertk-/-Cx3cr1GFP/+Ccr2RFP/+ mice may usable to develop feature inflammation targeted treatment strategy for RD.

Free Research Field

眼科学