Autophagy plays critical roles in various ocular diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Tie2-expressing macrophages (TEMs) play crucial roles in angiogenesis. To investigate the role of TEMs and autophagy in the development of AMD, we employed macrophage-specific Tie2 knockout mice and used a laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV). The results showed that TEMs can promote CNV formation by up-regulating the level of autophagy. These results were further verified by in vitro cell experiments that peritoneal macrophages from Tie2 knockout mice can inhibit the expression of autophagy-related factors and inhibit the expression of angiogenic factor of VEGF by activating AMPK signaling pathway. Our results suggest that TEMs and macrophage Tie2 signal mediated-autophagy play critical role in experimental CNV, and they may be novel preventive targets for AMD treatment.

中文翻译：

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巨噬细胞Tie2信号介导的自噬在激光诱导的脉络膜新生血管形成中的重要作用。

自噬在包括年龄相关性黄斑变性（AMD）在内的各种眼科疾病中起着至关重要的作用。表达Tie2的巨噬细胞（TEM）在血管生成中起关键作用。为了研究TEM和自噬在AMD发育中的作用，我们采用了巨噬细胞特异性Tie2基因敲除小鼠，并使用了激光诱导的脉络膜新生血管（CNV）。结果表明，透射电镜可通过上调自噬水平来促进CNV的形成。通过体外细胞实验进一步证实了这些结果，Tie2基因敲除小鼠的腹膜巨噬细胞可以通过激活AMPK信号通路来抑制自噬相关因子的表达并抑制VEGF血管生成因子的表达。我们的结果表明，TEM和巨噬细胞Tie2信号介导的自噬在实验性CNV中起关键作用，