PDGFRB upregulation contributes to retinal damages in the rat model of retinal ischemia-reperfusion

Retinal ischemic disease is a major type of retinal diseases causing vision loss. Identifying the molecular mechanisms mediating the retinal ischemia-reperfusion (RIR) is the key to targeted intervention. In this study, we performed RNA-seq analysis of the retinal tissues of a retinal ischemia-reperfusion model of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats, followed by differential gene expression analysis, gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis, and protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis. After studying we found that: The major biological processes affected after RIR was the regulation of vascular development. PPI analysis unveiled a regulatory module in which Platelet Derived Growth Factor Receptor Beta (PDGFRB) was upregulated. In the RIR cell model of human retinal microvascular endothelial cells (HRCEC) induced by oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R), silencing PDGFRB at least partially rescued the detrimental effect on cell proliferation and in vitro angiogenic ability. In the rat model of RIR, the administration of PDGFR inhibitor alleviated the damages in the retinal microvascular system. Besides, we further demonstrated the protective effect of procyanidin against RIR induced damages in both the cell and animal model by dampening the overexpression of PDGFRB. Together, our data indicate that the upregulation of PDGFRB contributes to RIR-induced damages in retinal microvascular system, which provides a targetable strategy for therapeutic intervention.