Abstract

Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) has been considered as a new approach to the gene therapy of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR), but whether it affect the in vivo PVR model induction remains unknown. In this study, 90 Wistar rats were averagely divided into three groups according to the content of intravitreal injection: normal saline (Group 1), retinal pigmented epithelial -J cells and PRP (Groups 2 and 3). In Group 3, a condition of UTMD was used additionally on days 3 and 7 after injection. On days 14 and 28, the pathological changes of eye grounds were assessed, and the expression levels of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β2 and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB were tested. In Group 3, proliferation in the eyes was significantly stronger and faster than that of Group 2 and the ratio of PVR was significantly higher than that of Group 2. The expression levels of TGF-β2 and PDGF-BB were significantly higher in Group 3 than in Group 2. These data suggested that UTMD promotes PVR induced by RPE-J cells and PRP which provide a new method for the development of rat PVR model. This also reminds us that the effects of UTMD should be taken into consideration when using UTMD as an approach to attenuate PVR.

Key words: Proliferative vitreoretinopathy, rat model, ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction, retinal pigmented epithelial -J cells, platelet-rich plasma.