Background—The insulin-sensitizing agents referred to as thiazolidinediones (TZDs) possess antiatherogenic and anti-inflammatory actions that contribute to protection against diabetic macrovascular complications. However, little is known about the effects of TZDs on retinal microvessel disorders.

Objective—To investigate whether TZDs modulate retinal vessel formation in a mouse model of oxygen-induced retinopathy.

Methods and Results—Neonatal mice were subjected to ischemia-induced retinopathy to produce pathological neovascular tuft formation. Pioglitazone, 10 mg/kg per day, rosiglitazone, 10 mg/kg per day, or vehicle was given by gavage once a day from postnatal day 7 to postnatal day 17. Systemic treatment of wild-type (WT) mice with TZDs led to a significant decrease in pathological retinal neovascularization during ischemia compared with vehicle treatment, which was accompanied by increased plasma levels of the fat-derived hormone adiponectin (APN). In contrast to WT mice, TZDs had no effects on ischemia-induced pathological retinal vessel formation in APN-knockout (KO) mice. Pioglitazone reduced tumor necrosis factor (TNF) expression in ischemic retina in WT mice but not in APN-KO mice. Furthermore, pioglitazone increased plasma APN levels in TNF-–KO mice but did not affect ischemia-induced pathological retinal neovascularization in this strain.

Conclusion—These data show that TZDs attenuate pathological retinal microvessel formation through APN-mediated modulation of TNF- production.