PURPOSE Exudative age-related macular degeneration (exudative AMD) is a common vision-threatening disease, with both environmental and genetic factors contributing to its development. Recently, homozygosity for the 72Met variant of the pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) Met72Thr gene polymorphism (rs1136287) was identified as a novel risk factor for exudative AMD in Chinese patients from ...

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to verify whether the decreased vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-to-pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) ratio can serve as an indicator for the protective effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) on diabetic retinopathy (DR) and to investigate the role of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the downregulated VEGF-to-PEDF rati...

BACKGROUND Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), a glycoprotein with potent neuronal differentiating activity, was recently found to inhibit advanced glycation end product (AGE)-induced retinal hyperpermeability and angiogenesis through its antioxidative properties, suggesting that it may exert beneficial effects on diabetic retinopathy by acting as an endogenous antioxidant. However, the i...

The present study is an exploration of a novel strategy to target a therapeutic gene to brain tumour tissues. In the present study, we evaluated the feasibility of using hMSCs (human mesenchymal stem cells) to deliver PEDF (pigment epithelium-derived factor), a potent inhibitor of tumour angiogenesis, in a model of intracranial gliomas. To assess its potential of tracking gliomas, MSCs (mesench...

PURPOSE Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) has been mapped to chromosome 17p13.1. From the candidate genes mapped to this region, thus far, only Retinal Guanylate Cyclase (RetGC), has been found to have pathogenic LCA mutations, in families from North African origin. However, early reports, demonstrated eight LCA families linked to 17p13.1, but only four of them showed mutations in RetGC. Mapped ...

PURPOSE To characterize the cellular expression patterns of antiangiogenic factors differentially regulated in the fetal human macula. METHODS RNA was extracted from macular, nasal, and surround biopsies of three human fetal retinas at midgestation. Relative levels of expression of pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), collagen type IValpha2 (COL4A2), and ...

The pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) is a glycoprotein with a molecular weight of 50 kDa belonging to the noninhibitory serpin family. It regulates several physiological processes, such as stimulation of retinoblastoma cell differentiation into neuron cells, and facilitation of the growth and viability of photoreceptor cells and neurons of the central nervous system. Moreover, this fact...

The biological activity of (PEDF, (molecular weight ~45 kDa) includes the modulation of the activity of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF). The expression of PEDF and VEGF within both the retina and RPE is relevant to this study [1,2-9]. Any immunologic inhibition of the influence of PEDF over VEGF might result in a loss of control over the activity of VEGF. Without this restraint VEGF c...

PURPOSE We aimed to elucidate the effects of two epigenetic inhibitors, 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-aza-dC) and trichostatin A (TSA), on several key secretory mediators of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in human retinal endothelial cells (HRECs) and human retinal pigment epithelial (HRPE) cells treated with high glucose or interleukin-1β (IL-1β). METHODS HRECs and HRPE cells were incubated in 30 mM ...

Anti-angiogenesis has been proposed as an effective therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment. Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) is one of the most powerful endogenous anti-angiogenic reagents discovered to date and PEDF gene therapy has been recognized as a promising treatment option for various tumors. There is an urgent need to develop a safe and valid vector for its systemic delivery...