Abstract
Purpose: :
To analyse the toxicity of bevacizumab (AvastinTM) to cultured human corneal endothelial cells in vitro. Bevacizumab is a monoclonal antibody, which binds to and inhibits all subtypes of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A). VEGF is the main stimulus for neovascularization in the eye. Neutralization of VEGF is a therapeutical method to treat neovascular diseases such as macula degeneration, diabetic retinopathy or neovascular glaucoma. Therefore, bevacizumab is injected either intracamerally or intravitreally.
Methods: :
We used secondary cultures of human corneal endothelial cells. The cultures were treated with bevacizumab in different dosages (1,0 mg, 1,25 mg and 5 mg) for 72 hours under serum-free and serum-containing conditions. That corresponds to the usually injected intracameral and intravitreal or the four- to fivehold dosis. The toxicity was analysed by specific toxicity and vitality tests named CytoTox-ONETM and CellTiter BlueTM. The statistical analysis was performed by analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Results: :
Using the toxicity and vitality tests we detected no toxicity of bevacizumab to cultured corneal endothelial cells. There were no significant differences between both the dosages and serum-free or serum-containing cultures.
Conclusions: :
No toxic effect of bevacizumab to corneal endothelial cells was detected. Therefore, we expect no damage of corneal endothelial cells by using bevacizumab in clinical practice.
Keywords: cornea: endothelium • vascular endothelial growth factor • drug toxicity/drug effects