Abstract
Purpose :
To study the effect of anti-VEGF on retinal blood flow in Ins2 (Akita) diabetic retinopathy mouse model using laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG) of optic nerve head (ONH) region.
Methods :
The study was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of SingHealth, Singapore. All experiments were conducted according to the guidelines of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) for the use of animals in research. Fourteen eyes of eight Akita mice were included in the study. All the mice were anesthetized using the combination of ketamine hydrochloride (50 mg/kg) and xylazine hydrochloride (0.5 mg/kg). Intravitreal anti-VEGF (Eylea 1 µg/eye) injection was given to each eye and the IOP and retinal blood flow were measured longitudinally at baseline (pre-injection), day 7, 14, 21 and 28 post injection. For retinal blood flow the relative blood flow velocity “mean blur rate (MBR)” was measured for different regions of the ONH and the changes over the time and its association with IOP was analyzed by t-test.
Results :
The age of the mice was ranged from 12 to 19 weeks. The MBR at baseline was 6.55±2.5, 6.99±6.34, 6.34±2.15, 6.5±2.13 and 7.63±3.2, 7.74±2.37, 7.85±3.10, 7.80±2.49 at 28 days post injection in superior, nasal, inferior and temporal regions of the ONH respectively (p>0.05). At all time points there was elevation in retinal flow, which was not statistically significant. There was also no statistically significant association between IOP and MBR (p>0.05).
Conclusions :
Intravitreal anti-VEGF (Eylea) injection does not lead to significant changes in retinal blood flow in Ins2 (Akita) diabetic retinopathy mouse model.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.