Retinal blood vessel phenotyping in mice

Purpose In the retina there is a compromise between optimal visual function and optimal oxygenation. Retinal blood vessels have a relative sparse distribution and their size is small in order to minimise optical interference with the light path. Hence, the blood flow volume in the retina is relatively low. This fact, together with the high oxygen consumption of the retinal tissue, could facilitate the development of retinal hypoxia and subsequent retinopathy when the vascular bed is altered. Thus, the analysis of retinal blood vessel must be a crucial step during retinal phenotyping in mutant mice. Methods Different technologies and methods have been used in order to analyze structure, distribution and function of retinal blood vessels, among others: retinal digest preparations, retinal whole mount immunohistochemistry, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, fluorescein and Mercox vascular injections and scanner laser ophthalmoscopy. Results In our laboratory, morphological and topographic alterations of retinal blood vessels in Bmi1 and Sirt1 knockout mice, as well as in IGF‐1 and IL‐10 transgenic mice, have been observed and documented Conclusion The mouse genome is fully sequenced. 99% of the coding genes present in man are also present in mouse. Moreover, the majority of disease‐related genes have been conserved since the emergence of the bony fishes about 400 million years ago. These facts and the development during the last two decades of an extensive toolbox to study the functional effects of genetic variation in mice, make them the ideal model organism for the study of human eye diseases. In this sense, morphological and functional analyses of retinal blood vessel in mutant mice could help to understand vascular gene‐based mechanisms that lead to retinopathy