Author: Umit Inan (Turkey)
Co-authors: Jale Akgol, Ali Arslan, Sibel Inan
Purpose
Caveolins play a role in various signaling pathways related to ocular physiology and pathophysiology. Caveolin-1 has been abundantly observed in retinal and choroidal vascular beds and Müller glia cells, and its expression is also exist in RPE. As a preliminary study, we aimed to investigate whether caveolin-1 is detectable and increased in the aqueous humor in eyes with retinal vascular diseases. We aimed to investigate whether intraocular caveolin levels is detectable or increased in eyes with retinal vascular diseases.
Setting/Venue
Parkhayat Hospital Department of Ophthalmology Afyonkarahisar
Methods
Two hundred-thirty eyes with ocular vascular diseases were included in the study. Before the intravitreal anti-VEGF injection, 0.1 cc aqueous humor was withdrawn from the anterior chamber by paracentesis and stored for the detection of caveolin-1. Thirty-six eyes with cataract and without any systemic or ocular disease were included as the control group. In the control group aqueous humor samples were obtained during the phacoemulsification surgery. Caveolin-1 levels was measured with the Human Caveolin-1 ELISA kit (BT-LAB, Zhejiang, China) and absorbance reading was done by a reader device (ChemWell 2910, Awareness Technology, Inc. Martin Hwy. Palm City, USA).
Results
One-hundred eleven eyes included in the diabetic macular edema (DME) group, 16 eyes in the retinal vascular occlusion (RVO) group and 67 eyes in the neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) group. The mean age of the patients was 60.9±6.9 years old (DME), 71.7±7.9 years old (nAMD), 61.6±5.3 years old (RVO) and 68.07±12.1 years old (control). Mean aqueous caveolin-1 levels was 12.3±4.2 ng/mL in the DME group, 11.1±3.9 ng/mL in the nAMD group, 11.8±7.1 ng/mL in the RVO group and 13.9±5.6 ng/mL in the control group. Aqueous humor mean caveolin-1 levels differed between groups (ANOVA, p: 0.027), with lower levels in eyes with nAMD compared to control eyes.
Conlusions
This preliminary study showed that the level of aqueous humor caveolin-1 was detectable in eyes with retinal vascular diseases treated with anti-VEGF injections. The levels of the aqueous caveolin did not differ between the eyes with DME, RVO and the control. Further studies with larger sample size are needed to investigate intraocular caveolin-1 levels in retinal vascular diseases to validate our results.
Financial Disclosure
No financial interest
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