Tuncay Topal1*, Yakup Aksoy1 and Ali Ayata2
1Specialist, Department of Ophthalmology, Haydarpasa Sultan Abdulhamid Training and Research Hospital, Üsküdar, Istanbul, Turkey
2Associated Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, Haydarpasa Sultan Abdulhamid Training and Research Hospital, Üsküdar, Istanbul, Turkey
*Corresponding Author: Tuncay Topal, Specialist, Department of Ophthalmology, Haydarpasa Sultan Abdulhamid Training and Research Hospital, Üsküdar, Istanbul, Turkey.
Received: September 26, 2020; Published: October 07, 2020
Purpose: To observe the effect of subconjunctival (SC) approach for the treatment of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in an experimental rat model.
Methods: We used 4 groups (G) comprising 18 new-born rats in each. G1: healthy control, G2: untreated oxygen induced retinopathy (OIR) control, G3: SC rat anti vascular endothelial growth factor antibody (antiVEGFab) injected and G4: Intravitreal (IVT) antiVEGFab injected. G2, G3 and G4 were exposed to oxygen fluctuations alternating between 50% and 10% every 24 hours until postnatal day (p) 14 at which time the groups were placed into room air for 4 days. At p18; OIR was observed through fluorescein angiography (FA). G3 and G4 were treated immediately 1 µg/10 µl and 50 ng/2 µl respectively. FAs repeated at p19, p25 and p30. To evaluate OIR; modified retinopathy scoring system (MRSS) was calculated according to the FA images, including retinal vascular development, vascular tuft formation, extraretinal neovascularization, vascular tortuosity and retinal haemorrhage. Blood analysis was performed on the same three days for the measurement of serum VEGF levels. Histopathological evaluation was performed with haematoxylin & eosin staining for the vascular lumen quantification on the retinal specimens of the enucleated eyes on the same days.
Results: There was no significant difference between the G3 and G4 at the end of the study according to the MRSS values (p: 0,101), systemic VEGF levels (p: 0,796) and vascular lumen counts of histopathological specimens (p: 0,359).
Conclusion: The therapeutic effect of SC and IVT on OIR were similar. SC anti VEGF treatment may be a safer and effective alternative to IVT injection for the treatment of ROP.
Keywords: Subconjunctival; Retinopathy of Prematurity; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor; Oxygen Induced Retinopathy
Citation: Tuncay Topal., et al. “Evaluation of the Efficacy of Subconjunctival Anti Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor İnjection in the Treatment of Retinopathy of Prematurity in an Experimental Rat Model". Acta Scientific Ophthalmology 3.11 (2020): 19-26.
Copyright: © 2020 Tuncay Topal., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.