Retinal expression of clusterin in the streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat.

To assess the possible relevance of clusterin in the pathophysiology of retinopathy associated with diabetes mellitus, streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats were studied. Clusterin expression was measured in both normal and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat retinas using Northern blotting, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis. The results show increased clusterin protein level and its mRNA expression 6 weeks after induction of diabetes. Clusterin was localized to the inner nuclear and ganglion cell layers of both normal and diabetic rat retinas. These data show that diabetes affects the expression of clusterin in the retina and may reflect a diabetes-induced damage and/or alterations of neural structures resulting in diabetic retinopathy.