Ocular inflammation alters swelling and membrane characteristics of rat Müller glial cells

Ocular inflammation is a common cause of retinal edema that may involve swelling of Müller glial cells. In order to investigate whether endotoxin-induced ocular inflammation in rats alters the swelling and membrane characteristics of Müller cells, lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 0.5%) was intravitreally injected. At 3 and 7 days after treatment, hypotonic challenge induced swelling of Müller cell somata that was not observed in non-treated control eyes. Müller cells of LPS-treated eyes displayed a downregulation of inward K+ currents and upregulation of A-type K+ currents that was associated with a decreased expression of Kir4.1 protein in retinal slices. The data suggest that ocular inflammation induces alterations of both the swelling characteristics and the K+ channel expression of Müller cells.