Endothelial Progenitor Cells and Response to Ranibizumab in Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Abstract

The observations indicate responsiveness of circulating EPCs to the CNV process in AMD. They suggest the hypothesis that increased stromal cell-derived factor 1 production at the CNV site (reflected in higher plasma levels) recruits EPCs from the circulation, and that antivascular endothelial growth factor therapy selectively decreases the recruitment of cells to be incorporated into new vessels.

Serum anti‐endothelial cell antibodies in patients with age‐related macular degeneration treated with intravitreal bevacizumab

“…; Scotti et al. ). The authors suggest that this phenomenon is the result of a chronic vascular dysfunction which may be associated with RPE ischaemia as a key element in the pathogenesis of AMD.…”

Systemic and ocular fluid compounds as potential biomarkers in age-related macular degeneration

“…Four small case-control studies have investigated the plasma levels of stromal cell-derived factor 1 in AMD patients with mixed results. Two studies, by the same group, report significantly lower levels of stromal cell-derived factor 1 in patients with nAMD, 210,211 whereas another study showed the inverse effect, 299 and the fourth did not report any differences between nAMD and control individuals. 115 298 Silva et al, 2012 312 Smailhodzic et al, 2012 319 Guymer et al, 2015 120 Reynolds et al, 2009 278 Ansari et al, 2013 14 Sharma et al, 2013 308 Sharma et al, 2013 310…”

“…Four studies detected significantly upregulated levels of VEGF in serum or plasma, 6,115,205,338 but these findings are contrasted with 10 other studies that reported no association. 41,80,112,122,125,211,231,299,353,380 VEGF signaling is mediated through a complex of receptors and coreceptors, of which the soluble form of VEGF receptor 1 has been investigated in a number of studies. As in the case of VEGF, these studies do not offer a clear direction of effect.…”

Integrin-Linked Kinase Controls Choroidal Neovascularization by Recruitment of Endothelial Progenitor Cells

“…1 CNV is a complex process, and tissue ischemia is thought to be involved in its development. 2 There is accumulating evidence that not only angiogenesis but also vasculogenesis participates in the development of CNV 3,4 -the peripheral blood contains a population of bone marrowderived endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) that can differentiate into endothelial cells.…”