Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1α in Rods Is Neuroprotective Following Retinal Detachment

PURPOSE: Following retinal detachment (RD) photoreceptors (PRs) sustain hypoxic stress and eventually die. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) plays a central role in cellular adaptation to hypoxia. The purpose of this study is to determine the necessity of HIF-1α on PR cell survival after RD. METHODS: Experimental RD was created in mice by injection of hyaluronic acid (1%) into the subretinal space. Mice with conditional HIF-1α knockout in rods (denoted as HIF-1α(Δrod)) were used. HIF-1α expression in retinas was measured real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting. PR cell death after RD was evaluated using TUNEL assay. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and histology were used to evaluate retinal layer thicknesses and PR cell densities. A hypoxia signaling pathway PCR array was used to examine the expression of HIF-1α target genes after RD. RESULTS: HIF-1α protein levels were significantly increased after RD, and depletion of HIF-1α in rods blunted this increase. A compensatory increase of HIF-2α protein was observed in HIF-1α(Δrod) mice. Conditional knockout (cKO) of HIF-1α in rods did not lead to any morphologic change in attached retinas but resulted in significantly increased PR cell loss after RD. HIF-1α cKO in rods altered the responses to retinal detachment for 25 out of 83 HIF-1α target genes that were highly enriched for genes involved in glycolysis. CONCLUSIONS: Rod-derived HIF-1α plays a key role in the PR response to RD, mediating the transcriptional activity of a battery of genes to promote PR cell survival.