Anti-angiogenic effect of caffeic acid on retinal neovascularization

Abstract

Pathological angiogenesis is the most common cause of vision loss at all ages including retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration. ROP is a proliferative disease of the retinal vasculature in premature infants. Herein, we demonstrated caffeic acid (CA) has the anti-angiogenic activity to retinal endothelial cells and retinal neovascularization in a mouse model of ROP, which might be related to the suppression of ROS-induced VEGF expression. CA effectively inhibited VEGF-induced proliferation of retinal endothelial cells in concentration-dependent manner. In addition, VEGF-induced migration and tube formation of retinal endothelial cells were completely inhibited. This anti-angiogenic activity of CA on retinal endothelial cells was related to the anti-oxidant activity: the inhibitory activity of CA to H 2O 2-induced reactive oxygen species production and VEGF expression. Interestingly, CA significantly suppressed retinal neovascularization in oxygen-induced retinopathy as the animal model of ROP without retinal cytotoxicity. These data suggests that CA could be a potent anti-angiogenic agent for retinal neovascularization, and be applied in the treatment of other vaso-proliferative retinopathies.