PURPOSE Uveitis is a major visual impairment disease affecting parts or the entire uveal tract and occasionally the sclera, the cornea or the optic nerve. The disease is a major cause of ocular morbidity and blindness in immunocompetent and immunocompromised patients. In this work we analyzed the sensitivity and specificity of real-time PCR to detect the etiological agent from blood, plasma, vi...

Demeclocycline, tetracycline and other tetracycline derivatives lowered intraocular pressure (IOP) in rabbits following intravitreal injection, but the onset of this effect was not evident until 1 or more days after drug administration. Of the drugs tested, demeclocycline was the most active ocular hypotensive agent. Demeclocycline caused a dose-dependent decrease in IOP. The maximum IOP decrea...

PURPOSE To compare the aqueous humor levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) in high myopic eyes and control eyes. METHODS Aqueous humor samples were collected from 21 highly myopic eyes of 20 patients (high myopia group) and from 30 cataract eyes of 30 patients with no choroidal neovascularization (CNV) or other ocular or systemic dise...

PURPOSE Cytokine patterns in the aqueous humor before penetrating keratoplasty might permit us to predict the development of immune reactions. We therefore analyzed ten different cytokines in the aqueous humor of patients before and following penetrating keratoplasty. METHODS We collected aqueous humor from patients undergoing cataract extraction or penetrating keratoplasty (baseline, n=197),...

PURPOSE Various cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), Fas ligand (FasL), interleukin-1α (IL-1α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and interleukin-6 (IL-6), contribute to the pathogenesis of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). The present study was set to measure these cytokines in the aqueous humor of patients with POAG and in control subjects using multiplex bead analysis. METHODS...

PURPOSE To describe the pharmacokinetics of intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin®) in rabbits. METHODS The right eye of 20 rabbits was injected intravitreally with 1.25 mg/0.05 mL bevacizumab. Both eyes of four rabbits each time were enucleated at days 1, 3, 8, 15, and 29. Bevacizumab concentrations were measured in serum, aqueous humor, and vitreous. RESULTS Maximum vitreous (406.25 μg/mL) an...

PURPOSE To evaluate the ability of real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) for detectingToxoplasma gondii DNA in the peripheral blood and aqueous humor of patients with toxoplasmic active focal necrotizing retinochoroiditis. METHODS Fifty-five patients with infectious uveitis seen from 2009 to 2013 at the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences of the Federal University of São Paulo were en...

PURPOSE To determine the kinetics of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in serum and aqueous humor of rats with different susceptibilities to endotoxin-induced uveitis (EIU), after footpad injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). METHODS Samples were collected from EIU-susceptible Lewis rats and EIU-resistant Brown Norway (BN) rats for up to 72 hours after LPS injection. Speci...

PURPOSE Extracellular microRNAs (miRNAs) in aqueous humor were suggested to have a role in transcellular signaling and may serve as disease biomarkers. The authors adopted next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques to further characterize the miRNA profile in single samples of 60 to 80 μL human aqueous humor. METHODS Samples were obtained at the outset of cataract surgery in nine independent...

The ocular barriers (cornea, blood-retinal barrier, and blood-aqueous humor barrier) make treating eye diseases with therapeutic drugs challenging. The tight capillary endothelium of the iris and the ciliary body epithelium form the blood-aqueous humor barrier. The iris and ciliary body (iris-ciliary body) express a variety of drug transporters in the ATP-binding cassette and solute carrier (SL...