The macular edema is caused with the increase of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in diabetic macular edema (DME) and retinal vein occlusion (RVO) patients. However, there are some drawbacks after anti-VEGF therapy. In an earlier report, adiponectin which is an adipokine secreted from adipocytes was increased in the retina of streptozotocin-induced diabetic retinopathy murine model. The purpose of this study was to investigate the involvement of adiponectin in the pathophysiology of retinal vascular hyperpermeability.
We investigated in VEGF and adiponectin levels in vitreous humor of DME and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) patients by ELISA. Moreover, we performed adiponectin level in murine RVO model by RT-PCR and Western blotting. To evaluate the effect of anti-adiponectin antibody, retinal thickness was measured by HE staining.
The adiponectin level with the vitreous body of DME patients was higher than PDR patients. Interestingly, both mRNA and protein of adiponectin were increased in the retina of murine RVO model, and the increase of the retinal thickness was ameliorated by anti-adiponectin antibody therapy.
These data indicate that adiponectin may represent one of potential therapeutic targets for retinal edema in DME and RVO patients.