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In vivo fluorescence molecular imaging of the vascular endothelial growth factor in rats with early diabetic retinopathy

Authors :
Zhi Yang
Sobha Sivaprasad
Bei Tian
Ding Yunhe
Dehui Xiang
Yang Du
Shenshen Yan
Jie Tian
Fei Shi
Zhang Lu
Xinyuan Zhang
Xinjian Chen
Yanyun Chen
Source :
Biomed Opt Express
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Optica Publishing Group, 2021.

Abstract

Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy is effective for reducing the severity level of diabetic retinopathy (DR). However, it is difficult to determine the in vivo spatial and temporal expression of VEGF in the DR retina at an early stage. Here, we report a quantitatively fluorescence molecular imaging and image analysis method by creating a VEGF targeted fluorescence imaging probe, which can potentially detect and predict anti-VEGF treatment response. Moreover, the ex vivo multiscale fluorescence imaging demonstrated the spatial correlation between VEGF relative expression and vascular abnormalities in two and three dimensions. It revealed that VEGF was mainly abnormally expressed at the bifurcation of the microvessels, which advances the knowledge of the DR progression by molecular fluorescence imaging. Our study has the potential to achieve early detection of DR disease, provide more insight into understanding anti-VEGF treatment, and may help stratify patients based on the molecular imaging of retinal VEGF.

Details

ISSN :
21567085
Volume :
12
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Biomedical Optics Express
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....440fb9fe90e467aa3cd8a7e6d09a996c