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Retinal VEGF levels correlate with ocular circulation measured by a laser speckle-micro system in an oxygen-induced retinopathy rat model

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Abstract

Purpose

We used a Laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG)-micro system to examine the relationship between ocular blood flow and retinal vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) at retinopathy onset in oxygen-induced ischemic retinopathy (OIR) model rats.

Methods

Sixteen 50/10 OIR rats were compared with 17 control rats reared in room air. In postnatal day 14 (P14) and P18 rats, we measured and analyzed the left eye’s mean blur rate (MBR) by setting a rubber band on the optic nerve head center, using the LSFG-Micro. At P18, the rats were sacrificed and their left-eye retinas were fixed, flat-mounted and stained with adenosine diphosphatase (ADPase). The right-eye retinas were homogenized; the lysate was centrifuged for an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The avascular area was measured as the percentage (%AVA) of the total retinal area. Retinal VEGF was measured by an ELISA.

Results

The examination’s reproducibility was good. Our multivariate linear mixed model analysis revealed significantly high MBRs in the OIR rats (p = 0.0017). In the P18 OIR rats, significant correlations were seen between the MBR and %AVA (r = 0.80, p = 0.0002) and between the MBR and VEGF (r = 0.76, p = 0.0006).

Conclusions

The LSFG-Micro provided reproducible blood flow measurements in neonatal rats. Because of the vitreous blood vessels, measurement of only the retinal vessels was not possible. However, the MBR was higher in the OIR rats than in the control rats, and the MBR and %AVA were correlated, as were the MBR and retinal VEGF. The MBR may thus serve as an indicator of OIR severity.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ms. E. Ozawa for her technical assistance.

This work was supported by a Toho University Tobari scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Toho University, 6-11-1 Omori-Nishi, Ota-ku, Tokyo, 143-8541, Japan

    Tadashi Matsumoto, Takashi Itokawa, Tomoaki Shiba & Yuichi Hori

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Showa University, Tokyo, Japan

    Yuta Saito & Haruo Takahashi

  3. Department of Medical Statistics Faculty of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo, Japan

    Mari S. Oba

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  1. Tadashi Matsumoto
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  2. Yuta Saito
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  3. Takashi Itokawa
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Correspondence to Tadashi Matsumoto.

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Toho University provided financial support in the form of a Tobari scholarship. The sponsor had no role in the design or conduct of this research.

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All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest (such as honoraria; educational grants; participation in speakers’ bureaus; membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest; and expert testimony or patent-licensing arrangements), or non-financial interest (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs) in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

Animal experiments

All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of Showa University (Tokyo) (nos. #05101, #06004).

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Matsumoto, T., Saito, Y., Itokawa, T. et al. Retinal VEGF levels correlate with ocular circulation measured by a laser speckle-micro system in an oxygen-induced retinopathy rat model. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 255, 1981–1990 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-017-3756-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-017-3756-0

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