Open AccessDiabetic mice have retinal and choroidal blood flow deficits and electroretinogram deficits with impaired responses to hypercapnia
Author(s) -
Eric R. Muir,
Divya Narayanan,
Saurav Chandra,
Nikolay P. Akimov,
JeongHyeon Sohn,
Evan Meyer,
René C. Renterı́a,
Timothy Q. Duong
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0259505
Subject(s) - hypercapnia , medicine , erg , electroretinography , retinal , diabetic retinopathy , retina , blood flow , ophthalmology , basal (medicine) , endocrinology , diabetes mellitus , anesthesia , biology , acidosis , neuroscience
Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate neuronal and vascular functional deficits in the retina and their association in a diabetic mouse model. We measured electroretinography (ERG) responses and choroidal and retinal blood flow (ChBF, RBF) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in healthy and diabetic mice under basal conditions and under hypercapnic challenge. Methods Ins2 Akita diabetic (Diab, n = 8) and age-matched, wild-type C57BL/6J mice (Ctrl, n = 8) were studied under room air and moderate hypercapnia (5% CO 2 ). Dark-adapted ERG a-wave, b-wave, and oscillatory potentials (OPs) were measured for a series of flashes. Regional ChBF and RBF under air and hypercapnia were measured using MRI in the same mice. Results Under room air, Diab mice had compromised ERG b-wave and OPs (e.g., b-wave amplitude was 422.2±10.7 μV in Diab vs. 600.1±13.9 μV in Ctrl, p 0.05), but an increase in RBF was not detected for either group. Conclusions Inner retinal neuronal function and both retinal and choroidal blood flow were impaired in Diab mice. Hypercapnia further compromised inner retinal neuronal function in diabetes, while the blood flow response was not affected, suggesting that the diabetic retina has difficulty adapting to metabolic challenges due to factors other than impaired blood flow regulation.