Abstract
Purpose: :
To analyse the toxicity of ranibizumab (Lucentis®) to cultured human corneal endothelial cells in vitro. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is the main stimulus for neovascularization in the eye. Ranibizumab (Lucentis ®) is a monoclonal antibody fragment, which binds all isoforms of VEGF-A. Neutralisation of VEGF is a form of therapy to treat neovascular diseases such as macula degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, central vein occlusion or neovascular glaucoma. Therefore, ranibizumab (Lucentis ®) is injected usually intravitreal, less frequent intracameral.
Methods: :
We used secondary cultures of human corneal endothelial cells. The cultures were treated with ranibizumab (Lucentis ®) in different concentrations (4 mg/ml, 5 mg/ml und 20 mg/ml) for 72 hours under serum-free and serum-containing (fetal calf serum) conditions. Ultrafiltration was used to get high concentration of ranibizumab. The toxicity was analysed by viability tests CytoTox-ONETM, CellTiter BlueTM and CellTiter GloTM. The statistical analysis was performed by the t-test.
Results: :
Using the toxicity and vitality tests we observed no toxicity of ranibizumab to cultured human corneal endothelial cells in all concentrations. The viability of the corneal endothelial cells was not reduced compared to the controls.
Conclusions: :
In conclusion, no toxic effect of ranibizumab (Lucentis ®) to cultured human corneal endothelial cells was detected. Therefore, we expect no damage of corneal endothelial cells by using ranibizumab (Lucentis ®) in clinical practice.
Keywords: cornea: endothelium • drug toxicity/drug effects • cytology