Abstract
Seventeen Wistar inbred rats were made diabetic by a single injection of streptozotocin (50 mg/kg body weight) and were killed after periods of 3, 6, 9 or 12 months. Pathological changes in pericapillary Müller cells of the retina were studied using electron microscopy.
Basement membrane-like material proliferated in the intercellular space of the Müller cell network and occasionally appeared to insinuate into the Müller cell cytoplasm far from capillary pericytes and endothelial cells. The part of the Müller cell that was enveloped by proliferating basement membrane-like material showed partial necrosis which was thought to contribute to the widening of the capillary wall. A breakdown of the retinal framework, which leads to capillary dilatation, was also thought to be associated with partial necrosis of Müller cells.
Highly electron-dense bodies accumulated in the Müller cell cytoplasm which surrounded the retinal capillaries. Ultrastructurally, these dense bodies resembled lysosomes. Their increased number might reflect the altered metabolism of the diabetic retina.
Zusammenfassung
Bei 17 Ratten eines Wistar-Inzuchtstammes wurde ein Streptozotocin-induzierter Diabetes durch eine einzelne Streptozotocin-Injektion (50 mg/kgKG) hervorgerufen. Die Tiere wurden 3, 6, 9 und 12 Monate nach der Injektion getötet. Die pathologischen Veränderungen der perikapillären Müllerschen Zellen wurden elektronenmikroskopisch untersucht.
Dabei war im Extrazellulärraum zwischen den Müllerschen Zellen basalmembranartiges proliferierendes Material nachweisbar, das stellenweise in den den Pericyten bzw. Endothelzellen abgewandten Anteilen der Müllerschen Zellen in deren Cytoplasma eingeschleust wurde. Die Anteile der Müllerschen Zellen, die von diesem proliferierenden basalmembranartigen Material umgeben waren, zeigten teilweise Nekrosen. Es wird vermutet, daß dies eine Mitursache der Kapillarwandverdickung darstellt. Möglicherweise besteht zusätzlich ein Zusammenhang zwischen den beschriebenen Nekrosen der Müllerschen Zellen und dem Untergang von umgebenden Netzhautgewebe, wodurch es zu einer Kapillarerweiterung kommt.
Im Cytoplasma der die Netzhautkapillaren umgebenden Müllerschen Zellen fanden sich vermehrt sehr elektronendichte Körperchen („dense bodies”), die sich im Elektronenmikroskop als Lysosomen darstellten. Ihre vermehrte Anzahl könnte auf den veränderten Stoffwechsel der Netzhaut beim Diabetes hinweisen.
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Hori, S., Mukai, N. Ultrastructural lesions of retinal pericapillary Müller cells in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Albrecht v Graefes Arch. klin. exp. Ophthal. 213, 1–9 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02391205
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02391205