The Intraocular Angiogenic Factors and There Receptors

1990 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 63440067
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Ophthalmology
• Research Institution: Okayama University
• Principal Investigator: OHSHIMA Koh-ich Okayama University Hospital attached to Medical School, Assistant, 医学部附属病院, 助手 (40176871)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 河西 庸二郎 岡山大学, 医学部・附属病院, 助手 (80211184) ; TOYOTA Eiji Same as above, Assistant, 医学部・附属病院, 助手 (70207645) ; SHIRAGA Fumio Same as above, Assistant, 医学部・附属病院, 助手 (50187530) ; KONISHI Haruhito Same as above, Assistant, 医学部・附属病院, 助手 (90205435) ; MATSUOKA Tohru Same as above, Lecturer, 医学部・附属病院, 講師 (10165780)
• Project Period (FY): 1988 – 1990
• Keywords: Intraocular Angiogenic Factor / Fibroblast Growth Factor / Immunohistochemistry / In situ Hybridization / Retinal Pigment Epithelium / Elastin

Research Abstract

1. In diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, neovascular glaucoma and retinal vein occlusion, morbid vascularization developes in the eye, leading in extreme cases to blindness. Many studies have been published on the etiology of such neovascularization. To further elucidate the factors responsible for such neovascularization, we undertook a study in which the angiogenic factor (AF) was extracted from the bovine retina and was compared with similar previously known factors. We found that the intraocular AF newly purified by us is the same as the previously known basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF).
2. It has recently become evident that acidic and basic FGFs are involved in the new vessel formation. Using the in situ hybridization technique, we thus investigated which cells in the eye are responsible for the production of such factors. We detected the messenger RNA (m RNA) of the basic FGF only at the internal segment of the retinal visual cells.
3. In normal persons, elastic layer of Bruch's membrane seems to act as a physical barrier to protect the outer retinal layers from being invaded by choroidal newly formed vessels. However, it is not known which cells are responsible for the production of the elastin in Bruch's membrane. To clarify this issue, we investigated whether the retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells produce the elastin or not. We cultured in vitro the RPE cells of a chicken, extracted mRNA from the fibroblast-likely transformed RPE cells, and tried to amplify the elastin's mRNA using the polymerase chain reaction technique, in which 35S-labeled human elastin's complementary DNA was employed as a probe. In this experiment, however, we did not detect the elastin's mRNA.