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Changes in choriocapillaris fenestration of rat eyes after intravitreal bevacizumab injection

  • Pathology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Background

To examine the effects of anti-VEGF antibody (bevacizumab) on the number of fenestrations in rat choriocapillaris.

Methods

Twenty-four eyes from 24 male Wister rats were injected intravitreally with 0.125 mg of bevacizumab. The rats were perfusion fixated at 1, 3, 7, 14 or 28 days after injection. The surfaces of the choriocapillaris on the RPE side were observed using scanning electron microscopy. Four eyes treated with human IgG were used as controls. The area sieve plate and the number of fenestrations after the bevacizumab injection were measured and compared with controls.

Results

In the controls, the sieve plate area was 80.7% of the total choriocapillaris area. The number of fenestrations was 69.2 ± 0.2 /μm2 of the fenestrated area. While there were no changes in the fenestrated area for any of the time points after the bevacizumab treatment, the number of fenestrations was significantly reduced to 52.9 ± 4.4 at day 1, 55.6 ± 3.6 at day 3 and 53.6 ± 8.6 /μm2 of the luminal surface at day 7 (ANOVA, p < 0.05).

Conclusions

In this study, intravitreal bevacizumab injection reduced fenestration of the normal choriocapillaris. These results indicate there is a latent risk inherent with bevacizumab treatment of normal choriocapillaris.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Saga University Faculty of Medicine, 5-1-1, Nabeshima, Saga, 849-8501, Japan

    Yukiko Shimomura, Akira Hirata, Shinichiro Ishikawa & Satoshi Okinami

Authors
  1. Yukiko Shimomura
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  2. Akira Hirata
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  3. Shinichiro Ishikawa
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  4. Satoshi Okinami
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Akira Hirata.

Additional information

This work was presented in part at the 80th Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, 2008.

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Shimomura, Y., Hirata, A., Ishikawa, S. et al. Changes in choriocapillaris fenestration of rat eyes after intravitreal bevacizumab injection. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 247, 1089–1094 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-009-1054-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-009-1054-1

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