Vascular Pericyte Impairment and Connexin43 Gap Junction Deficit Contribute to Vasomotor Decline in Diabetic Retinopathy.

ABSTRACT: Adequate blood flow is essential to brain function, and its disruption is an early indicator in diseases, such as stroke and diabetes. However, the mechanisms contributing to this impairment remain unclear. To address this gap, in the diabetic and nondiabetic male mouse retina, we combined an unbiased longitudinal assessment of vasomotor activity along a genetically defined vascular network with pharmacological and immunohistochemical analyses of pericytes, the capillary vasomotor elements. In nondiabetic retina, focal stimulation of a pericyte produced a robust vasomotor response, which propagated along the blood vessel with increasing stimulus. In contrast, the magnitude, dynamic range, a measure of fine vascular diameter control, and propagation of vasomotor response were diminished in

SUBMITTER: Ivanova E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5551058 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature