Significance of erythropoietin for the embryonic development of the lens / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Studies have found that erythropoietin has a protective effect on embryonic development of the retina, but there are rare studies concerning the embryonic development of the lens. OBJECTIVE: To observe the difference in erythropoietin expression in the lens from Wistar rats at different embryonic periods and to investigate the effect and significance of erythropoietin in the embryonic development of the lens. METHODS:Clean Wistar rats with pregnancy for 10 days (n=5), 12 days (n=5), 14 days (n=5), 16 days (n=5), 18 days (n=5), 20 days (n=5) were randomly colected and divided into six groups. Every two embryonic ratsof the different 30 pregnant rats were obtained randomly by the caesarean operation under ketamine-induced anesthesia. The eye tissues of al the embryonic rats were isolated and cut into sections. The expression of erythropoietin protein and mRNA in rat lens was detected by immunohistochemistry and reverse t ranscription-PCR, respectively. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Erythropoietin was distinctly expressed at the six different embryo stages, and the expression of erythropoietin protein and mRNA gradualy increased from embryonic day 10 to embryonic day 16, and decreased from embryonic day 10 to embryonic day 20. There were significant differences between the six groups. These findings indicate that the expression of embryonic appears in a low to high to low fashion during the embryonic development of Wistar rats, which may be closely associated with the developing procedure of lens.