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1From the Vanderbilt Eye Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee; and the 2Department of Ophthalmology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York.
PURPOSE. The response of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) to ocular pressure in glaucoma likely involves signals from astrocytes and microglia. How glia-derived factors influence RGC survival at ambient and elevated pressure and whether the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a contributing factor were investigated.
METHODS. Primary cultures of retinal astrocytes, microglia, and RGCs were prepared using immunomagnetic separation. Comparisons were made of RGC survival at ambient and elevated pressure (+70 mm Hg) and with pressure-conditioned medium from glia with, and depleted of, IL-6.
RESULTS. Pressure elevated for 24 to 48 hours reduced RGC density, increased TUNEL labeling, and upregulated several apoptotic genes, including the early immediate genes c-jun and jun-B. Pressure-conditioned medium from astrocytes reduced RGC survival another 38%, while microglia medium returned RGC survival to ambient levels. These effects were unrelated to IL-6 in microglia medium. Neither astrocyte- nor microglia-conditioned medium affected ambient RGC survival unless depleted of IL-6, which induced a 63% and a 18% decrease in RGCs, respectively. Recombinant IL-6 equivalent to levels in glia-conditioned medium doubled RGC survival at elevated pressure.
CONCLUSIONS. For RGCs at ambient pressure, IL-6 secreted from astrocytes and microglia under pressure is adequate to abate other proapoptotic signals from these glia. For RGCs challenged by elevated pressure, decreased IL-6 in astrocyte medium is insufficient to counteract these signals. Increased IL-6 in microglia medium counters not only proapoptotic signals from these cells but also the pressure-induced apoptotic cascade intrinsic to RGCs.
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