Retinal vessel density drops early, optic nerve blood flow later after crush injury in mice

A study in mice found that optic nerve injury causes a rapid decrease in retinal blood vessel density within four days, followed by a later reduction in blood flow at the optic nerve head. These vascular changes coincided with distinct inflammatory and glial responses in the respective tissues. The research used an optic nerve crush model, tracking retinal vessel density and optic nerve head blood flow over 28 days. Retinal vessel density significantly decreased from day 4 onward, alongside increased expression of inflammatory and glial activation genes. Optic nerve head blood flow showed a significant reduction starting day 7, coinciding with glial activation and A1 astrocyte-related gene expression on day 28. The findings suggest that reduced blood flow after neuronal injury is linked to inflammatory and glial responses, potentially informing future glaucoma research. The study was supported by Japanese scientific grants and published as open access under a Creative Commons license.