Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To reduce the risk against major vascular events secondary to arteriosclerosis, anti–hyperlipidemia drugs are used all over the world. The benefit in reducing hyperlipidemia in high–risk patients was supported by many clinical studies that were performed as multi–center, randomized clinical trials. Yet, there have been very few studies evaluating the effect of anti–hyperlipidemia drugs in patients who have eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy. In this study, we studied the efficacy of Pitavastatin, an anti–hyper cholesterolemia drug and Bazafibrate, an anti–hyper triglycemia drug against retinal neovascularization (NV). Methods: To induce retinal NV by hypoxic retinopathy, C57bl mice were kept under 75% oxygen for five days, from P7 to P12, and then moved to a normal environment for an additional five days. These animals were given 1 or 10mg/kg Pitavastain, 10 or 100mg/kg Bazafibrate, or vehicle only once per day for five days. Animals were sacrificed at P17 and enucleated. Cryo–sectioned eyeballs were prepared and stained immunohistochemically with gliffonia simpliciforia isolectin–B4, and the NV beneath the retina were evaluated by image analysis using Image Pro Plus software. Results: Mice given Pitavastatin or Bazafibrate showed larger NV areas compared to those given vehicle only. In particular, mice given 1mg/kg Pitavastatin had statistically larger NV areas compared to the others. Conclusions: Anti–hyperlipidemia drugs represented by Pitavastatin and Bazafibrate showed a progressive effect on ocular NV. These two drugs have different mechanisms to inhibit serum lipid level. This suggests that anti–hyperlipidemia drugs may worsen the retinal NV in some diseases such as proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
Keywords: neovascularization • drug toxicity/drug effects