The Morphological Changes of Muller Cell in Human Diabetic Retinopathy

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Vascular cells may not be the only cells affected by diabetes in the retina. In particular, b-wave abnormalities of the electroretinogram in diabetic patients with absentor minimal microangiopathy have suggested to possible dysfunction of Muller cells. METHODS: This study was performed to investigate the morphological changes of Muller cell in human diabetic retinopathy. Thirteen human retinas were obtained from donor eyes. These eyes were enucleated immediately after death. Five eyes were used as normal controls without specific medical history. Eight eyes were obtained from diabetes patients and four eyes of them had diabetic retinopathy in gross finding. RESULTS: In normal control group, Muller cells were observed in nerve fiber layer and inner nuclear layer of the retina. The Muller cells were found to have stained strong positive reaction and polygonal pattern. In the group of diabetic history without diabetic retinopathy, Muller cells had similar pattern with control group. But, in diabetic retinopathy, Muller cells had lightly positive pattern in inner nuclear layer and nuclei were oval, compared with polygonal shape in normal retina. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggested that Muller cells might have functional and morphological changes in diabetic retinopathy, and these changes can induce the diabetic microvascular abnormalities.