PEDF: anti-angiogenic guardian of ocular function.
Sight-threatening eye diseases can be caused and exacerbated by the aberrant growth of new blood vessels. Recent work indicates that this neovascularization not only is a response to a rise in the local concentration of molecules that induce such angiogenesis but also requires a fall in the levels of endogenous molecules that inhibit angiogenesis. One of the most potent of these endogenous inhibitors is pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), which serves as a survival factor for neuronal components of the eye as well as an essential inhibitor of the growth of ocular blood vessels. Its anti-angiogenic activity is selective in that it is effective against newly forming vessels but spares existing ones, and it is reversible. The molecular basis for this delicate control of endothelial cells is beginning to be understood and strategies to test the ability of PEDF to ameliorate or prevent vessel damage in the eye are developing rapidly.
Dept of Microbiology-Immunology and Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University Medical School, 310 East Superior Street, Chicago, Il 60611, USA. n.bouck@northwestern.edu
Noël
N
Bouck
D020533:Angiogenesis Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000378:metabolism; D005123:Eye / Q000098:blood supply; D005128:Eye Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D005136:Eye Proteins; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D009799:Ocular Physiological Phenomena; D011506:Proteins / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015843:Serpins / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000099174:Pigment Epithelium-Derived Factor
D020533:Angiogenesis Inhibitors; D005136:Eye Proteins; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D011506:Proteins; D015843:Serpins; D000099174:Pigment Epithelium-Derived Factor