Ophthalmology Commons^™

Vegf164-Mediated Inflammation Is Required For Pathological, But Not Physiological, Ischemia-Induced Retinal Neovascularization, Susumu Ishida, Tomohiko Usui, Kenji Yamashiro, Yuichi Kaji, Shiro Amano, Yuichiro Ogura, Tetsuo Hida, Yoshihisa Oguchi, Jayakrishna Ambati, Joan W. Miller, Evangelos S. Gragoudas, Yin-Shan Ng, Patricia A. D'Amore, David T. Shima, Anthony P. Adamis

Ophthalmology and Visual Science Faculty Publications

Hypoxia-induced VEGF governs both physiological retinal vascular development and pathological retinal neovascularization. In the current paper, the mechanisms of physiological and pathological neovascularization are compared and contrasted. During pathological neovascularization, both the absolute and relative expression levels for VEGF₁₆₄ increased to a greater degree than during physiological neovascularization. Furthermore, extensive leukocyte adhesion was observed at the leading edge of pathological, but not physiological, neovascularization. When a VEGF₁₆₄-specific neutralizing aptamer was administered, it potently suppressed the leukocyte adhesion and pathological neovascularization, whereas it had little or no effect on physiological neovascularization. In parallel experiments, genetically altered VEGF_{164 …}