| Purposes To investigate the expression and effect of notchsignaling in RCS rat retina.Methods The RCS rats with inherited retinal dystrophy weredivided into 3 groups: 2,4,8w after birth, and RCS-rdy~+ rats of the sameage without retina degeneration as control groups. The morphologicalchanges and expressions of Notch signal pathway in RCS rat retina wereobserved by histopathological, and fluorescence histochemistry analysisrespectively.ResultsThe RCS-rdy~+ rat There were no obvious changes in the retina.At 2 weeks, the expression of GFAP, notch1, hes1 and neuroD weredetected, and decreased rapidly with the age.The RCS rat With the age, the photoreceptor layers becamethicker gradually due to the accumulation of shedded outer segmentmembrane, and the atrophy of outer nuclear layer deteriorate. GFAP-positive process of Müller cell gradually spanned the inner limitmembrane(ILM), and extented to the outer layers of retina, and formedthe tree-root-like structures.Notch1 was expressed in almost all the layers of the retina exceptinner plexiform layer (INL), and increased with the age.Expression of Hes1 was prolonged in OPL, IPL and INL, andincreased with the age of RCS rat. The expression of NeuroD was constant in PRC, which was alsofound in INL at 2 weeks and reached the peak at 4 weeks and decreasedat 8 weeks postneotally.The expression of Mash1 went up gradually in PRC, presented inOPL at 2 week, but then decreased.The expression of notch1 and hes1 was higher than that of NeuroDand Mash1.Conclusions:During the retinal degeneration in RCS rat1 Notch signal pathway was activated and might play a role in theregulation of cell proliferation and differentiation.2 There might be some compensation mechanisms to promote thesurvival and differentiation of photoreceptors in a certain degree.3 The expressions of inhibitory factors such as Notch1 and Hes1were stronger than that of activated transcription factors, for examples,NeuroD and Mash1, which might promote the proliferation of Müllercells. |
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