Journal
INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE
Volume 50, Issue 5, Pages 2194-2200Publisher
ASSOC RESEARCH VISION OPHTHALMOLOGY INC
DOI: 10.1167/iovs.08-3013
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Eye Institute [EY02120, EY01765]
- Prevent Blindness, Inc. [EY13729, EY11123, EY08571]
- Leonard Wagner Trust, New York, New York
- Macular Vision Research Foundation (WWH)
- Foundation Fighting Blindness
- Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
- Hope for Vision
Ask authors/readers for more resources
PURPOSE. To assess the neuroprotective effect of virally mediated overexpression of ciliary-derived neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in experimental rat glaucoma. METHODS. Laser-induced glaucoma was produced in one eye of 224 Wistar rats after injection of adenoassociated viral vectors (type 2) containing either CNTF, BDNF, or both, with saline-injected eyes and noninjected glaucomatous eyes serving as the control. IOP was measured with a hand-held tonometer, and semiautomated optic nerve axon counts were performed by masked observers. IOP exposure over time was adjusted in multivariate regression analysis to calculate the effect of CNTF and BDNF. RESULTS. By multivariate regression, CNTF had a significant protective effect, with 15% less RGC axon death (P < 0.01). Both combined CNTF-BDNF and BDNF overexpression alone had no statistically significant improvement in RGC axon survival. By Western blot, there was a quantitative increase in CNTF and BDNF expression in retinas exposed to single viral vectors carrying each gene, but no increase with sequential injection of both vectors. CONCLUSIONS. These data confirm that CNTF can exert a protective effect in experimental glaucoma. The reason for the lack of observed effect in the BDNF overexpression groups is unclear, but it may be a function of the level of neurotrophin expression achieved. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2009;50:2194-2200) DOI:10.1167/iovs.08-3013
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available