Investigation of neuroprotective function of Muller cell for developing new therapy of glaucoma

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

We investigated the neuroprotective function of Muller cell using rat cultured Muller cell. Muller cells from 3-day-old Wister rat were isolated and cultured with DMEM with 10% fetal bovine serum. Change of the mRNA and protein expression level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) was examined under hypoxic stress, high-pressure stress, and applying several drugs. The expression level of mRNA and protein was determined by the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), real-time PCR and Western blot analysis. As for the high-pressure stress, its effect on nitric oxide (NO) production was also investigated. Under hypoxia or high-pressure stress, the expression level of BDNF, CNTF and GDNF mRNA was decreased. After removal of the stress, the expression level recovered gradually and finally increased compared with control. The expression level of NO synthetase-2 and NO production was increased under high-pressure stress. Betaxolol and iganidipine up-regulated BDNF, CNTF, and GDNF mRNA. Western blot analysis showed the BDNF and GDNF protein was also up-regulated. These observations suggest that Muller cells have influence on retinal ganglion cells by changing neurotrophic factor expression under several conditions. Some drugs were proved to be effective in up-regulating the neurotrophic factor in Muller cells, then may have neuroprotecting function for retinal ganglion cells.