Objective To observe the effects of bevacizumab on aquaporin 4 (AQP4) expression in human retinal M uuml;ller cells in vitro under hypoxia. To explored the mechanism of treating retinal edema with bevacizumab. Methods Human M uuml;ller cells were cultured using the enzymatic digestion method. Transmission electron microscopic analysis and immunofluorescence staining identified M uuml;ller cells. With semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the expression of AQP4 mRNA and vascular endothelial growth factor （VEGF） mRNA in M uuml;ller cells cultured under different concentration of COCl2 for different hours were observed. The expression of AQP4 mRNA in M uuml;ller cells cultured using CoCl2 precultured with 200 mu;g/ml bevacizumab was measured. Results More than 95% of primary cells showed positive reaction to glial fibrillary acidic protein, glutamine synthetase, vimentin and alpha;-smooth muscle actin with immunofluorescence staining. Characteristic 8-10 nm intracellular filaments could be seen in the cytoplasm viewed with transmission electron microscopy. The results using RT-PCR showed that CoCl2 increased the AQP4 and VEGF mRNA expression in M uuml;ller cells in a dose and time dependent manner (r=0.952, 0.954;P＜0.05). The expression of AQP4 mRNA in M uuml;ller cells was increased by VEGF (F=12.43,P＜0.05). The expression of AQP4 mRNA was significantly decreased by bevacizumab (F=2 370.37，P＜0.05). Conclusion Bevacizumab can down-regulate the expression of AQP4 mRNA in human M uuml;ller cells under hypoxic conditions partially by VEGF path, which may be a mechanism for treating retinal edema with bevacizumab.
Citation： 蔡维,程扬,柯丽娜,张有顺,温臣婷,李国保,邓国涛. Effects of bevacizumab on the expression of aquaporin 4 in Müller cells under hypoxia. Chinese Journal of Ocular Fundus Diseases, 2012, 28(6): 615-620. doi: Copy