title: Alzheimer’s disease and retinal neurodegeneration share a consistent stress response of the neurovascular unit creator: Busch, Stephanie creator: Wu, Liang creator: Feng, Yuxi creator: Gretz, Norbert creator: Hoffmann, Sigrid creator: Hammes, Hans-Peter subject: ddc-610 subject: 610 Medical sciences Medicine description: Background: The pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by neuronal injury, activation of microglia and astrocytes, deposition of amyloid-beta and secondary vessel degeneration. In the polycystic kidney disease (PKD) rat model, we observed neuronal injury, microglial activation and vasoregression. We speculated that this neuroretinal degeneration shares important pathogenetic steps with AD. Therefore, we determined the activation of astrocytes and the accumulation of amyloid-beta in PKD retinae. Methods: Immunohistochemistry of PKD retinae for vimentin, carboxymethyllysin, beta-Amyloid 1-42, High-Mobility-Group-Protein B1 and amyloid protein precursor was performed. Results: Adjunct to astrocyte activation, accumulation of beta-Amyloid 1-42 and High-Mobility-Group-Protein B1 in astrocytes and around vessels of the superficial network was found in PKD retinae prior to the onset of vasoregression. Amyloid precursor protein was localized adjacent to the outer segment of photoreceptors in PKD and control rats. The parallel appearance of AD-related peptides indicates an alarmine based response to photoreceptor degeneration and secondary vasoregression. Conclusion: The model has broad overlap with AD and may be suitable to study beneficial pharmacological concepts. Copyright (c) 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel publisher: S. Karger AG date: 2012 type: Article type: info:eu-repo/semantics/article type: NonPeerReviewed format: application/pdf identifier: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserverhttps://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/17820/1/CPB20120300061436.pdf identifier: DOI:10.11588/heidok.00017820 identifier: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-178203 identifier: Busch, Stephanie ; Wu, Liang ; Feng, Yuxi ; Gretz, Norbert ; Hoffmann, Sigrid ; Hammes, Hans-Peter (2012) Alzheimer’s disease and retinal neurodegeneration share a consistent stress response of the neurovascular unit. Cellular physiology and biochemistry, 30 (6). pp. 1436-1443. ISSN 1015-8987 relation: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/17820/ rights: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess rights: http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/help/license_urhg.html language: eng