New Therapies for ARMD 1 Thursday 17 May 14:30 - 16:00 Salle Camille Blanc
M. Falcăo, R. Soares, Â. Carneiro, I. Azevedo, F. Falcăo-Reis,
PORTUGAL
Effects of bevacizumab on HUVECs proliferation and apoptosis
Bevacizumab has been used intravitreally as an off-label therapy for age related macular degeneration. Doubts on its safety have been raised due to the high intra-ocular concentrations reached in the vitreal cavity after injection. Purpose: To evaluate short term in vitro effects of bevacizumab in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Methods: Cultures of HUVECs were established and treated during 24h with bevacizumab (0.25 - 5mg/ml) diluted in culture medium. Controls were incubated with excipient solutions. Cell viability was evaluated by MTT and trypan blue exclusion assays. Proliferation was analyzed by 5’-bromo-2’deoxyuridine (Brdu) incorporation and morphologically assessed by microscopy. Apoptosis was assessed by TUNEL assay. Results: Viability of HUVECs incubated with bevacizumab did not significantly differ from controls in any of the concentrations examined by the two methods. Despite an increase in cell apoptosis by increased concentrations of bevacizumab, these values were not statistically different from the controls. A tendency towards a significant decrease in cell proliferation was found when HUVECs were incubated with bevacizumab at 0.25, 0.5 and 1mg/ml. Conclusions: These findings indicate that bevacizumab at concentrations identical to doses normally used in clinical practice neither inhibit endothelial cell viability and proliferation or induced significant apoptosis. Our results are in agreement with the established lack of toxicity in clinical use.
