Experimental Study On The Expression Of The Erythropietin In The Early-Period Diabetic Rat Retina

Objective: To investigate the relation between erythropoietin and early diabetic retinopathy by studying the expression of erythropoietin and erythropoietin-receptor on diabetic rat retina in the early period.Methods: There are 50 adult male Wistar rats included in the study. They were divided into two groups: the control group with 10 rats and thestreptozotocin group with 40 rats. All streptozotocin group rats were injected with streptozotocin to be turned into diabetic disease models. There were 10 model rats were killed one month later after the injection, which were regarded as the one-month group. Then, another 10 modal rats were killed three months later, and 10modal rats have been killed five months later. The control group animals were killed one week later, which had been injected equal volume of citric acid liquid at the begining of the experiment. All the animals were killed by overdose of anesthesia and their eye balls were excised to make pathological sections. To observe the expression of erythropoietin and erythropoietin-receptor and pathological changes on diabetic rat retina, all the eye ball sections were observed morphologically and were assayed by immunohistochemistry.Results: Entoretina oedema was observed in the three-month group. The decrease of nerve nodal cells, venous dilatation and basal membrane thickening was observed in the five-month group. No positive erythropoietin expression has been observed in the control group and the one-month group. Three rats have been observed with positive erythropoietin expression in the three-month group. Eight rats have been observed with positive erythropoietin expression in the five-month group. No rat has been observed with positive erythropoietin-receptor expression in the control group and the one-month group. Three rats have been observed with positive erythropoietin-receptor expression in the three- month group and seven rats have been observed in the five-month group.Conclusion: Erythropoietin and erythropoietin-receptor are expressed in the early period of diabetic rats, which has happened after the retina pathological changes.