Dysregulation of neurotrophic and inflammatory systems accompanied by decreased CREB signaling in ischemic rat retina

Abstract Although permanent bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (2VO) has been demonstrated to induce retinal injury, there is still a lack of systematic research on the complex processing of retinal degeneration. In the present study, time-dependent (at three, 14, 60 days after 2VO surgery) changes of neurotrophic and inflammatory systems, as well as cAMP-responsive element binding protein (CREB) signaling, which has been previously reported to effectively regulate these two systems, were evaluated. First, a morphological study confirmed that 2VO surgery progressively induced severe inner retinal degeneration and down-regulation of synaptic proteins, PSD95 and synaptophysin. The mRNA or protein levels of neurotrophic factors (NGF, BDNF, NT-3 and GDNF) and their receptors (TrkA, TrkB and TrkC) showed marked and persistent down-regulation in the rat retina since three days after 2VO surgery, whereas the gene transcription levels of CNTF were increased and p75 NTR mRNA levels remained unchanged. In contrast to inner retinal degeneration, retinal Muller cells displayed rapid and prolonged activation since three days after 2VO lesion, whereas the microglia cell number, and TNF-α and IL-1β levels showed a robust increase with a maximal effect at three days and returned to levels that were slightly over baseline at 14 and 60 days after 2VO lesion. Interestingly, the gene expression levels of iNOS significantly decreased in the rat retina at both three and 14 days after 2VO surgery. Finally, as we hypothesized, remarkable reduction of CREB and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation levels were observed in the rat retina at three days after 2VO surgery. Thus, for the first time, our study demonstrated that chronic ischemia induced long-term aberrant CREB signaling and time-dependent progressive dysregulation of neurotrophic and inflammatory systems in the retina, which may provide important clues for a better understanding of the pathogenesis of retinal ischemic damage.