Establishment of a pigmented murine model abundant with characteristics of retinal vein occlusion.

Retinal vein occlusion (RVO) is a vascular disease that represents characteristic retinal hemorrhage and dilated retinal veins. Despite its clinical importance, its pathogenesis remains largely unknown because of limited opportunities to acquire human retinal samples. Therefore, an animal model that reproduces the clinical features of RVO patients is required for further investigation. In this study, we established a pigmented murine RVO model that reproduced characteristic fundus appearances similar to human RVO findings. Retinal edema in this model was observed in both optical coherence tomography and histological analysis, which is a clinically important outcome. With quantitative real-time PCR analysis on retinal samples, we revealed that the mRNA level of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) increased in the retina induced RVO. Moreover, this retinal edema was reduced by intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF antibody. These results were consistent with human clinical knowledge and suggested that this model could be a useful tool for research into new therapeutic approaches.