School of Medicine Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-22-2025
Abstract
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays a key role in angiogenesis throughout the human body, influencing countless physiological and pathological processes, including tumor growth, preeclampsia, and retinal diseases such as diabetic retinopathy (DR) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In DR, VEGF promotes retinal neovascularization and intraretinal fluid accumulation, leading to complications like diabetic macular edema (DME) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). Regular intravitreal anti-VEGF injections are commonly used to manage PDR and DME, though repeated treatments are often required, and efficacy can be limited. AMD, a major cause of vision loss in older adults, is characterized by either dry or wet forms. While the dry form has not been shown to be influenced by VEGF, the choroidal neovascularization of wet AMD has strong associations with VEGF. Current treatment for wet AMD consists primarily of anti-VEGF injections, the gold standard of care, but is limited by varying patient responses, as treatments are often repeated every 4-8 weeks indefinitely. This review explores the pathogenic role of VEGF in both DR and AMD, discussing the molecular mechanisms underlying these diseases and the therapeutic approaches targeting VEGF. Despite advancements, the variability in treatment responses highlights the need for continued research to develop more effective therapies to prevent vision loss and blindness associated with these retinal diseases.
Recommended Citation
Callan, A., Heckman, J., Tah, G., Lopez, S., Valdez, L., & Tsin, A. (2025). VEGF in Diabetic Retinopathy and Age-Related Macular Degeneration. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 26(11), 4992. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26114992
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
DOI
10.3390/ijms26114992
Academic Level
faculty
Comments
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).