Galectin-1 involvement in neovascular retinopathies

MAGALI E. RIDANO; PAULA SUBIRADA; MARIA CONSTANZA PAZ; VALERIA E. LORENC; JUAN CARLOS STUPIRSKI; A. LAURA GRAMAJO; JOSE D LUNA PINTO; DIEGO O. CROCI RUSSO; GABRIEL A. RABINOVICH; MARIA CECILIA SANCHEZ

Congreso; Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) 2017; 2017

Purpose: Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) inhibitors have been established as the mainstay of currenttreatment of neovascular retinopathies (NVRx), however, it remains an unmet medical need. Galectin-1 (Gal1) hasbeen implicated in pathologies associated with neovascularization (NV) through VEGF independent pathways and byits interaction with N-acetyllactosamine (NAcLc) structures in N- and O- glycans on glycosylated receptors. Here, wehypothesize that Gal1 is participating in experimental and clinical NVRx and independently of anti-VEGF therapy.Methods: Oxygen-Induced Retinopathy (OIR) mouse model was carried out. Briefly, C57BL/6 mice (OIR, N=33) wereexposed to 75% O2 from P7 to P12, after which they were brought to room air for additional five (P17) or nine days(P26). Age-match mice maintained in room air (RA, N=15) were used as controls. Some OIR mice were intraocularinjected at P12 with 1,25 μg of anti-VEGF (N=9) or vehicle (N=9). At P12, P17 and P26 mice were sacrificed. Someeyes were fixed to obtain cryosections for immunofluorescences and retinas were isolated to analyze Gal1 expressionby Western blots and qRT-PCR. Moreover, aqueous humor of patients with NVRx (N=16) or from control patients(N=6) was used to measure Gal1 levels by ELISA assays. GraphPad Prism program was employed for statisticalanalysis.Results: Gal1 protein and mRNA levels were increased in P17 and P26 OIR retinas respect to RA controls (p