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PEDF may regulate corneal vascularization, prevent retinal neovascularization, study suggests
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Pigment-epithelium-derived factor may be present in the human tear fluid of healthy individuals and may play a role in regulating corneal vascularization, according to a study by researchers in Sweden.
Oran Abdiu, MD, and G. Van Setten, MD, PhD, analyzed undiluted tear fluid samples from 18 healthy patients and five patients with pterygium. They also tested two positive control samples of subretinal fluid from patients who underwent retinal detachment surgery. All samples were tested for pigment-epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, according to the study.
In most healthy tear fluid samples, PEDF concentrations were below the detection limit (0.1 ng/mL). However, PEDF was found in three samples at significant concentrations of 2 ng/mL, 32 ng/mL and 53 ng/mL, the authors reported.
"PEDF may be found in measurable amounts in human tear fluid of healthy individuals and may therefore play a role in the effects and regulation of PEDF at the ocular surface," the authors said.
There were no detectable concentrations of PEDF among samples from patients with pterygium, according to the study, published in the December issue of Ophthalmic Research.