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Vascular atrophy in the retinal degenerative rd mouse
Author(s) -
Blanks Janet C.,
Johnson Lincoln V.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
journal of comparative neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 209
eISSN - 1096-9861
pISSN - 0021-9967
DOI - 10.1002/cne.902540407
Subject(s) - biology , retinal , retina , retinal degeneration , fluorescein isothiocyanate , anatomy , inner limiting membrane , retinal regeneration , peanut agglutinin , lectin , microbiology and biotechnology , neuroscience , biochemistry , fluorescence , physics , quantum mechanics
Abstract We have observed that the lectin Ricinus communis agglutinin I (RCA), which binds to terminal galaotose moieties, serves as a marker for vasculature in the mouse retina. The binding of fluorescein‐isothiocyanate‐conjugated RCA was used to study the development of retinal vasculature in normal mice and in rd (retinal degeneration) mutant mice, which exhibit a massive loss of photoreceptor cells during the first month of life. In the normal mouse, retinal capillaries develop in an ordered manner and are concentrated in three major zones between the inner limiting membrane and the outer plexiform layer. In the rd mouse, the vessels appear to form normally but begin to degenerate by the end of the second postnatal week. By the end of the fourth postnatal week there is approximately a 35% reduction in the total number of vascular profiles in the rd retina compared to normal littermate controls. This reduction in vascularity is temporally associated with the photoreceptor degeneration.