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Nerve growth factor in patients with age-related cataract

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First Author: A.Troshina RUSSIA

Co Author(s):    A. Shpak   A. Guekht   T. Druzhkova   N. Gulyaeva           

Abstract Details

Purpose:

Analysis of the nerve growth factor (NGF) content in the eye may be very important for clarification of different ophthalmological diseases pathogenesis and evaluation of the treatment efficacy. However, in practice this analysis is impossible except of during surgical procedures. An age-related cataract has relatively weak influence on concentrations of neurotrophic factors. The aim of the study was to measure NGF levels in the aqueous humor, lacrimal fluid, and blood serum in patients with age-related cataract.

Setting:

The S. Fyodorov Eye Microsurgery Federal State Institution, Moscow Moscow Research and Clinical Center for Neuropsychiatry of the Healthcare Department of Moscow, Moscow; Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow

Methods:

Thirty patients (30 eyes) operated for age-related cataract were examined. Exclusion criteria were any serious ophthalmic or somatic pathology, high refractive errors. Mean age of patients was 71.7±8.0 years (range 57-86 years); there were 13 men and 17 women. Collection of stimulated lacrimal fluid was performed by a pipette on the day preceding surgery; the aqueous humor and the blood were sampled during the phacoemulsification of a cataract. The concentration of NGF was measured by an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) using a Quantikine Elisa test system (Cloud-Clone corp., USA) on a ChemWell 2910 automatic analyzer (Awareness Technology Inc., USA).

Results:

The concentration of NGF was 24.3±11.9 (range 2.7-48.8) pg/mL in aqueous humor, 24.8±9.5 (5.9-41.6) pg/mL in serum, and 81.5±10.1 (58.9-99.9) pg/mL in lacrimal fluid. The concentration of NGF in the aqueous humor correlated well with its content in serum (Pearson’s correlation coefficient r was 0.60, P<0.000) and was rather close to it: median (interquartile range) for the ratio of concentrations in aqueous humor and serum was 0.96 (0.72-1.18). The correlation of NGF concentrations in lacrimal fluid and aqueous humor was relatively weak (r=0.31) and insignificant.

Conclusions:

In patients with age-related cataract, the highest level of NGF was detected in the LF, its concentration in AH and BS was more than three times lower. The NGF content in the AH significantly correlated only with its concentration in BS.

Financial Disclosure:

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