Objective: The purpose of the study was to determine whether hematopoietic stem cell (HSCs) mobilization can regulate early diabetic retinopathy in mice.
Methods: Mice were divided into four groups: control group, normal mice HSC-mobilized group, diabetic mice control group and diabetic mice HSC-mobilized group. Murine stem cell growth factor (SCF) and recombined human granulocyte colony stimulating factor (rhG-csf) were administered to the mice with diabetes and without diabetes for continuous 5 days to induce autologous HSCs mobilization, and subcutaneous injection of physiological saline was used as control. The changes associated with autologous HSCs mobilization were characterized using flow cytometry, Immunohistochemistry and semiquantitative RT-PCR. Evans blue quantitative test was used to measure the breakdown level of blood-retina barrier.
Results: HSCs were marked by CD34-/low and Sca1+ in this study. The acceleration of endothelial cell regeneration was observed. A decrease of VEGF expression due to autologous stem cell mobilization was found. HSCs could increase the content of VEGFR-2 in mouse retina and significantly downregulated the expression of VEGF and ang-2 in diabetic mice.
Conclusions: The experiment suggest that autologous HSCs mobilization can be approach of therapeutic vascular reconstruction and functional restoration of blood-retina barrier in mice.