In line with these findings, knocking down α-SMA expression with RNA interference also significantly suppressed ischemia-induced capillary constrictions (non-ischemic retinae: 139 ± 8 constrictions, scrambled siRNA-treated ischemic retinae: 291 ± 24 constrictions, α-SMA siRNA-treated ischemic retinae: 138 ± 29 constrictions; non-ischemia vs. siRNA+isch, P = 0.99, non-ischemia vs. scrambled + isch, P = 0.007, siRNA+isch vs. scrambled + isch, P = 0.007; ANOVA and Tukey’s test) (Fig. 2h-i; Additional file 1: Figure S1D). Here, ACTA1 is linked to ischemia.