Abstract
BackgroundOcular ischemia is a vision-threatening disease, and is a medical condition associated with many ocular diseases. Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy successfully prevents the progression of retinal neovascularization caused by ocular ischemia. Anti-VEGF therapy has limitations related to its side effects and suppression of physiological revascularization. Pigment epithelium derived factor (PEDF) has anti-angiogenesis and neurotrophic neuroprotective functions. It is a promising agent in the treatment of ischemia-induced retinal neurodegeneration. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of PEDF and anti-VEGF and the combined therapy on the ischemic rat eye model ex vivo.MethodsWe have previously established an ex vivo model of rat ocular ischemia by incubating the freshly enucleated eye in Dulbecco's modified eagle medium (DMEM) at 4 ℃ for 14 hours. This ex vivo eye model has already been confirmed as an ocular ischemia model. In this study, 36 eyes of 18 rats were used and each group included 6 eyes. The PEDF protein (10μg, 4μl), anti-VEGF drug (Avastin, 50μg, 4μl) or combined PEDF/Avastin (10μg PEDF + 50μg Avastin, 4μl) were intravitreally injected after eye enucleation. Fourteen hours later, eyes were fixed by formalin and immunohistochemical staining for VEGF, PEDF and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) was performed. The immunohistochemical staining intensity was analyzed for each group. Tunnel staining was used to determine the apoptosis of retinal neural cells.ResultsThe immunohistochemical staining intensity of VEGF and GFAP was significantly reduced in the neuroretina, the RPE cell layer and the choroidal vessels of the double treatment (PEDF/Anti-VEGF) eyes compared to the vehicle, PEDF, and anti-VEGF treatment alone. The intravitreally injected PEDF protein can penetrate the retina and locate in the neural retina, the RPE layer and the choroidal vessels. Compared to the vehicle-treated group, both the PEDF-treated and the double-treated groups showed significantly decreased number of TUNEL-positive nuclei, and the PEDF/Anti-VEGF treatment group had the least TUNEL-positive nuclei.ConclusionsPEDF/Anti-VEGF therapy shows a synergistic effect in the treatment of ischemic eye diseases. The combination of PEDF and anti-VEGF drug (Avastin) is a possible therapeutic strategy against ischemic retinal and choroidal diseases.