Transcriptional and Distributional Profiling of Microglia in Retinal Angiomatous Proliferation
Schlecht A, Wolf J, Boneva S, Prinz G, Braunger BM, Wieghofer P, Agostini H, Schlunck G, Lange C (2022)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2022
Journal
Book Volume: 23
Article Number: 3443
Journal Issue: 7
DOI: 10.3390/ijms23073443
Abstract
Macular neovascularization type 3, formerly known as retinal angiomatous proliferation (RAP), is a hallmark of age-related macular degeneration and is associated with an accumulation of myeloid cells, such as microglia (MG) and infiltrating blood-derived macrophages (MAC). However, the contribution of MG and MAC to the myeloid cell pool at RAP sites and their exact functions remain unknown. In this study, we combined a microglia-specific reporter mouse line with a mouse model for RAP to identify the contribution of MG and MAC to myeloid cell accumulation at RAP and determined the transcriptional profile of MG using RNA sequencing. We found that MG are the most abundant myeloid cell population around RAP, whereas MAC are rarely, if ever, associated with late stages of RAP. RNA sequencing of RAP-associated MG showed that differentially expressed genes mainly contribute to immune-associated processes, including chemotaxis and migration in early RAP and proliferative capacity in late RAP, which was confirmed by immunohistochemistry. Interestingly, MG upregulated only a few angiomodulatory factors, suggesting a rather low angiogenic potential. In summary, we showed that MG are the dominant myeloid cell population at RAP sites. Moreover, MG significantly altered their transcriptional profile during RAP formation, activating immune-associated processes and exhibiting enhanced proliferation, however, without showing substantial upregulation of angiomodulatory factors.
Involved external institutions
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Germany (DE)
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Germany (DE)
Universität Augsburg
Germany (DE)
Germany (DE)
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Germany (DE)
Universität Augsburg
Germany (DE)
How to cite
APA:
Schlecht, A., Wolf, J., Boneva, S., Prinz, G., Braunger, B.M., Wieghofer, P.,... Lange, C. (2022). Transcriptional and Distributional Profiling of Microglia in Retinal Angiomatous Proliferation. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(7). https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23073443
MLA:
Schlecht, Anja, et al. "Transcriptional and Distributional Profiling of Microglia in Retinal Angiomatous Proliferation." International Journal of Molecular Sciences 23.7 (2022).
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