Shang Fei, Schallek Jesse
Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, United States.
Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, United States.
Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2024 Dec 2;65(14):3. doi: 10.1167/iovs.65.14.3.
Mice are highly used in retinal research because, like humans, mice have vascularized retinas and choroidal circulation. Although the retinal circulation has been well-characterized in development, its stability during adulthood is less understood. To examine this network, we quantified several key metrics of the trilaminar vasculature.
We used mice (n = 15) with transgenic fluorescent NG2-DsRed (JX: #00824), a vascular-associated label in the retina. One eye per mouse was imaged using confocal microscopy (Nikon A1 Ti2 Eclipse) and traced with ImageJ SNT tools. Using an adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscope, additional mice (n = 3) were imaged at single-cell resolution within the living eye to measure the same vasculature.
Across mice, we found a stable retinal circulation that formed and maintained a trilaminar stratification throughout early adulthood at all eccentricities. Bridging these layers, microvessels had five distinct anatomical branching patterns. The superficial, intermediate, and deep plexuses increased in density with depth: 16.14 ± 3.61 mm/mm2, 22.14 ± 6.86 mm/mm2, and 31.01 ± 6.24 mm/mm2, respectively. This patterning was not impacted by eccentricity or age (13-61 weeks). Similar metrics were achieved using adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscope in vivo with the same analysis pipeline.
The mouse retinal vasculature was stable up to 50 weeks of age, providing a robust and extensive baseline dataset with which models of retinal vascular and neural disease may be compared. Vessels connecting the laminae were more complex than previously reported and represented a uniquely vulnerable population due to their relatively low density.
小鼠在视网膜研究中被大量使用，因为与人类一样，小鼠具有血管化的视网膜和脉络膜循环。尽管视网膜循环在发育过程中已得到充分表征，但其在成年期的稳定性却了解较少。为了研究这个网络，我们量化了三层脉管系统的几个关键指标。
我们使用了带有转基因荧光NG2-DsRed（JX：#00824）的小鼠（n = 15），NG2-DsRed是视网膜中的一种血管相关标记物。每只小鼠的一只眼睛使用共聚焦显微镜（尼康A1 Ti2 Eclipse）成像，并用ImageJ SNT工具进行追踪。使用自适应光学扫描激光眼科显微镜，对另外3只小鼠的活体眼睛进行单细胞分辨率成像，以测量相同的脉管系统。
在所有小鼠中，我们发现了一个稳定的视网膜循环，该循环在成年早期的所有偏心度下都形成并维持了三层分层结构。连接这些层时，微血管有五种不同的解剖分支模式。浅层、中层和深层血管丛的密度随深度增加：分别为16.14±3.61平方毫米/毫米、22.14±6.86平方毫米/毫米和31.01±6.24平方毫米/毫米。这种模式不受偏心度或年龄（13 - 61周）的影响。使用相同的分析流程，在体内通过自适应光学扫描激光眼科显微镜也获得了类似的指标。
小鼠视网膜脉管系统在50周龄之前是稳定的，提供了一个强大而广泛的基线数据集，可用于比较视网膜血管和神经疾病模型。连接各层的血管比先前报道的更为复杂，并且由于其相对较低的密度而代表了一个独特的易损群体。
