Difference in Ischemic Regulation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Pigment Epithelium--Derived Factor in Brown Norway and Sprague Dawley Rats Contributing to Different Susceptibilities to Retinal Neovascularization

The present study compared susceptibilities of Sprague Dawley (SD) and Brown Norway (BN) rats with ischemia-induced retinal neovascularization. An exposure to constant hyperoxia followed by normoxia induced significant retinal neovascularization in BN rats but not in SD rats, as demonstrated by fluorescein retinal angiography, measurement of avascular area, and count of preretinal vascular cells. These results indicate a rat strain difference in susceptibility to retinal neovascularization. To understand the molecular basis responsible for the strain difference, we have measured the levels of pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), an angiogenic inhibitor, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a major angiogenic stimulator in the retina. The hyperoxia-treated BN rats showed a significant reduction in retinal PEDF, but they showed a substantial increase of VEGF at both the protein and RNA levels, resulting in an increased VEGF-to-PEDF ratio. Hyperoxia-treated SD rats showed changes in PEDF and VEGF levels that were less in magnitude and of shorter duration than in BN rats. In age-matched normal BN and SD rats, however, there was no detectable difference in the basal VEGF-to-PEDF ratio between the strains. These observations support the idea that different regulation of angiogenic inhibitors and stimulators under ischemia are responsible for the differences in susceptibility to ischemia-induced retinal neovascularization in SD and BN rats.