Our previous data suggested that angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) is linked to pericyte loss, thereby playing an important role in diabetic
retinopathy. In this study, we investigated the effect of retinal overexpression of human Ang-2 (mOpsinhAng2 mouse) on vascular
morphology in non-diabetic and streptozotozin-induced diabetic animals. Pericyte (PC) coverage and acellular capillary (AC)
formation were quantitated in retinal digest preparations after 3 and 6 months of diabetes duration. The degree of retinopathy
in non-diabetic mOpsinhAng2 mice at 3 months (−21% PC, +49% AC) was comparable to age-matched diabetic wild type mice. Diabetic
mOpsinhAng2 mice exhibited significantly worse vascular pathology than wild type counterparts at 6 months. Quantitative PCR
revealed that human Ang-2 mRNA was highly overexpressed in retinas of transgenic mice. Our data demonstrate that overexpression
of Ang-2 in the retina enhances vascular pathology, indicating that Ang-2 plays an essential role in diabetic vasoregression
via destabilization of pericytes.
Keywords Angiopoietin-2 - Diabetic retinopathy - Pericyte