PMID- 20976212
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20110307
LR  - 20211020
IS  - 1932-6203 (Electronic)
IS  - 1932-6203 (Linking)
VI  - 5
IP  - 10
DP  - 2010 Oct 15
TI  - Novel rodent models for macular research.
PG  - e13403
LID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0013403 [doi]
LID - e13403
AB  - BACKGROUND: Many disabling human retinal disorders involve the central retina, 
      particularly the macula. However, the commonly used rodent models in research, 
      mouse and rat, do not possess a macula. The purpose of this study was to identify 
      small laboratory rodents with a significant central region as potential new 
      models for macular research. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Gerbillus 
      perpallidus, Meriones unguiculatus and Phodopus campbelli, laboratory rodents 
      less commonly used in retinal research, were subjected to confocal scanning laser 
      ophthalmoscopy (cSLO), fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography, and 
      spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) using standard equipment 
      (Heidelberg Engineering HRA1 and Spectralis) adapted to small rodent eyes. The 
      existence of a visual streak-like pattern was assessed on the basis of vascular 
      topography, retinal thickness, and the topography of retinal ganglion cells and 
      cone photoreceptors. All three species examined showed evidence of a significant 
      horizontal streak-like specialization. cSLO angiography and retinal wholemounts 
      revealed that superficial retinal blood vessels typically ramify and narrow into 
      a sparse capillary net at the border of the respective area located dorsal to the 
      optic nerve. Similar to the macular region, there was an absence of larger blood 
      vessels in the streak region. Furthermore, the thickness of the photoreceptor 
      layer and the population density of neurons in the ganglion cell layer were 
      markedly increased in the visual streak region. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The 
      retinal specializations of Gerbillus perpallidus, Meriones unguiculatus and 
      Phodopus campbelli resemble features of the primate macula. Hence, the rodents 
      reported here may serve to study aspects of macular development and diseases like 
      age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema, and the preclinical 
      assessment of therapeutic strategies.
FAU - Huber, Gesine
AU  - Huber G
AD  - Division of Ocular Neurodegeneration, Centre for Ophthalmology, Institute for 
      Ophthalmic Research, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany.
FAU - Heynen, Severin
AU  - Heynen S
FAU - Imsand, Coni
AU  - Imsand C
FAU - vom Hagen, Franziska
AU  - vom Hagen F
FAU - Muehlfriedel, Regine
AU  - Muehlfriedel R
FAU - Tanimoto, Naoyuki
AU  - Tanimoto N
FAU - Feng, Yuxi
AU  - Feng Y
FAU - Hammes, Hans-Peter
AU  - Hammes HP
FAU - Grimm, Christian
AU  - Grimm C
FAU - Peichl, Leo
AU  - Peichl L
FAU - Seeliger, Mathias W
AU  - Seeliger MW
FAU - Beck, Susanne C
AU  - Beck SC
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20101015
PL  - United States
TA  - PLoS One
JT  - PloS one
JID - 101285081
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - *Disease Models, Animal
MH  - Macula Lutea/*anatomy & histology
MH  - Retinal Vessels/anatomy & histology
MH  - Rodentia
MH  - Tomography, Optical Coherence
PMC - PMC2955520
COIS- Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
EDAT- 2010/10/27 06:00
MHDA- 2011/03/08 06:00
PMCR- 2010/10/15
CRDT- 2010/10/27 06:00
PHST- 2010/06/30 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2010/09/21 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2010/10/27 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2010/10/27 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2011/03/08 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2010/10/15 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10-PONE-RA-20454R1 [pii]
AID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0013403 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - PLoS One. 2010 Oct 15;5(10):e13403. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0013403.