Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Senescence in the Retinal Pigment Epithelium of NFE2L2/PGC-1α Double Knock-Out Mice
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most prevalent form of irreversible blindness worldwide in the elderly population. In our previous studies, we found that deficiencies in the nuclear factor, erythroid 2 like 2 ( ) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-α ( )...
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Veröffentlicht in: | International journal of molecular sciences 2021-02, Vol.22 (4), p.1684 |
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Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most prevalent form of irreversible blindness worldwide in the elderly population. In our previous studies, we found that deficiencies in the nuclear factor, erythroid 2 like 2 (
) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-α (
) genes caused AMD-like pathological phenotypes in mice. In the present work, we show hijacked epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) due to the common loss of
and
(double knock-out, dKO) genes in aged animals. The implanted area was assessed by histology, immunohistochemistry and transmission electron microscopy. Confocal microscopy revealed altered regions in the filamentous actin ring. This contrasted with hexagonal RPE morphology in wild-type mice. The ultrastructural RPE features here illustrated loss of apical microvilli, alteration of cell-cell contact, loss of basal in-folding with deposits on Bruch's membrane, and excessive lipofuscin deposition in dKO samples. We also found the expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition transcription factors, such as Snail, Slug, collagen 1, vimentin and OB-cadherin, to be significantly different in dKO RPEs. An increased immunoreactivity of senescence markers p16, DEC1 and HMGB1 was also noted. These findings suggest that EMT and senescence pathways may intersect in the retinas of dKO mice. Both processes can be activated by damage to the RPE, which may be caused by increased oxidative stress resulting from the absence of
and
genes, important for antioxidant defense. This dKO model may provide useful tools for studying AMD pathogenesis and evaluating novel therapies for this disease. |
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ISSN: | 1422-0067 1661-6596 1422-0067 |
DOI: | 10.3390/ijms22041684 |