VEGF concentration in aqueous humor and its significance to radiation retinopathy

Abstract

Objective To investigate VEGF concentration in aqueous humor and its significance to radiation retinopathy. Methods Patients with radiation retinopathy totally 8 eyes of 4 patients and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) totally 10 eyes of 9 patients from March 2007 to March 2009 came to our hospital were included. Aqueous humor from all these patients was collected before intravitreally injection of Bevacizumab (1.5mg). Ten eyes of 10 age-related cataracts were as controls. Aqueous humor was collected before phacomulcification in cataract patients. VEGF concentrations were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). VEGF concentrations were compared with Kruskal-Wallis H test among three groups. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the differences between two of them. For all statistical tests, P<0.05 was considered significant. Results There was no significant difference between radiation retinopathy and PDR in VEGF concentration. Both of them were much higher than those in cataract patients. Conclusions VEGF concentration elevated significantly in radiation retinopathy. VEGF may play important role in radiation retinopathy. Key words: Vascular endothelial growth factor; Radiation retinopathy; Proliferative diabetic retinopathy; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay