The Involvement of β -Catenin/COX-2/VEGF Axis in NMDA-Caused Retinopathy

Nmda,a molecule that is capable of producing the loss of retinal ganglia cells (rgcs),has been widely studied; however,the detailed mechanism is not yet clarified. previously,wnt/β-catenin signaling has been suggested to be involved in the nmda-induced retinopathy. in addition,previous investigations in our group demonstrated the presence of a wnt/β-catenin/cox-2 axis in dorsal root ganglions (drgs). therefore,here in this paper,we tested whether there is an association of such axis with nmda-induced rgc loss. rat retinal damage models generated by intravitreal injection of nmda were used to measure the expression levels of β-catenin,cox-2,and vegf in retinas,and the neuron numbers of the retinal gcl of rats were counted. then,pharmacological tools (mk801,a nmda receptor inhibitor; dickkopf homolog 1,a specific inhibitor of the wnt pathway; ns-398,a cox-2 inhibitor; and bevacizumab,ivb,a vegf inhibitor) were introduced to evaluate the detailed roles of wnt/β-catenin,cox-2,and vegf in retinopathy of rats. results demonstrated that all three factors in sequence are positively regulated neuronal loss induced by nmda. these observations indicated that the wnt pathway/cox-2/vegf axis plays a pathogenic role in retinopathy and represented novel therapeutic targets. © 2017 dan ning et al.