Effects of apelin and vascular endothelial growth factor on central retinal vein occlusion in monkey eyes intravitreally injected with bevacizumab: a preliminary study

摘要

Purpose: To examine the intraoculardistribution of bevacizumab at four weeks after intravitrealbevacizumab (IVB) injection and to investigate the effects of IVB onapelin and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the centralretinal vein occlusion (CRVO) of monkey eyes. Methods: Direct laser coagulation wasperformed on all branch retinal veins in the right eyes of six Rhesusmonkeys to establish a CRVO model. The eyes of the first three monkeyswere enucleated one week, two weeks, and 24 weeks after theestablishment of the CRVO model; this was the CRVO group. Subsequently,IVB was injected into the eyes of the last three monkeys one week, twoweeks, and 24 weeks after laser coagulation; this was the IVB group.The left eye of the first monkey was used as normal control.Immunohistochemistry and reverse-transcription PCR was used to examinethe expression of apelin and VEGF. The penetration of bevacizumab intothe retina and iris was investigated by fluorescence immunostaining. Results: Immunoreactivity forbevacizumab could be detected in the vessel walls of the iris andchoroid on day 28 after injecting IVB: apelin and VEGF staining hadbeen more prominent than normal in the CRVO eye, but these decreasedfollowing IVB injection. Expression of apelin mRNA (p0.01) waslower in the IVB group than the CRVO group and did not varysignificantly between groups. Conclusions: Bevacizumab could bedetected in the iris and choroid after four weeks of intravitrealinjection. Apelin may be partially suppressed by bevacizumab, and itmay play a role in retinal neovascularization during the development ofCRVO.