Expressions of hypoxiaª²inducible factorª²1¦Á and vascular endothelial growth factor in retina of streptozotocinª²induced diabetic rats

    LI Li, TANG Yongª²Qiang

    Department of Ophthalmology, Second Clinical College, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400010, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To study the expressions of hypoxiaª²inducible factorª²1¦Á (HIFª²1¦Á) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in retina of streptozotocinª²induced diabetic rats. METHODS: Sixty Wister rats were divided into testing group (group T, 45 cases) and control group (group C, 15 cases). Streptozotocinª²induced diabetic animal models were made in group T, and then the rats were divided into 3 groups ( T1, T3, T5) according to the time (1, 3, 5 months) after modeling. The rats in group C were also divided into 3 groups (C1, C3, C5). The expression of VEGF was assessed by immunohistochemical method and the expression of HIFª²1¦Á was assessed by Western Blotting. All the results were quantitatively analyzed by transformed into average optical density. RESULTS: 86.67%-93.33% of all the animal models were successful. Results of VEGF: There were no significant difference in the 3 control groups, as well as between group T1 and control groups (P>0.05); But the significant difference was found between group T3, T5 (t=6.12, P<0.01) and control groups (t=8.63, P<0.01) as well as between group T3 and T5 (t=3.45, P<0.05). Results of HIFª²1¦Á: There was no significant difference in the 3 control groups and in the 3 testing groups (P>0.05). But the significant difª²ferences were found between group T1, T3, T5 and the 3 control groups (t=4.35, 5.01, 5.34, P<0.01). CONCLUSION: We observed the increased expression of VEGF and HIFª²1¦Á in retina of streptozotocinª²induced diabetic rats, and the latter occurred earlier than the former. It suggests that the increased expression of HIFª²1¦Á might be the initial factor for expression of VEGF during diabetic retinopathy. ......