Essential contribution of macrophage Tie2 signal mediated autophagy in laser-induced choroidal neovascularization

  • Exp Eye Res. 2020 Apr;193:107972. doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2020.107972.
Bingyu Zhang  1 ,  Xue Yin  1 ,  Jianqing Li  1 ,  Chi Ren  1 ,  Weiming Liu  1 ,  Gaoqin Liu  1 ,  Peirong Lu  2
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Shizi Street 188, Suzhou, 215006, Jiangsu Province, PR China.
  • 2. Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Shizi Street 188, Suzhou, 215006, Jiangsu Province, PR China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 32059975 DOI: 10.1016/j.exer.2020.107972
Abstract

Autophagy plays critical roles in various ocular diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Tie2-expressing macrophages (TEMs) play crucial roles in angiogenesis. To investigate the role of TEMs and Autophagy in the development of AMD, we employed macrophage-specific Tie2 knockout mice and used a laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV). The results showed that TEMs can promote CNV formation by up-regulating the level of Autophagy. These results were further verified by in vitro cell experiments that peritoneal macrophages from Tie2 knockout mice can inhibit the expression of autophagy-related factors and inhibit the expression of angiogenic factor of VEGF by activating AMPK signaling pathway. Our results suggest that TEMs and macrophage Tie2 signal mediated-autophagy play critical role in experimental CNV, and they may be novel preventive targets for AMD treatment.

Keywords
Age-related macular degeneration; Autophagy; Choroidal neovascularization; Tie2-expressing macrophage (TEMs).
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