EurekAlert! -- Boston, MA—Scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute have found that reducing the levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which is best known as a stimulator of new blood vessel growth, in adult mice causes the death of photoreceptors and Muller glia - cells of the retina that are essential to visual function. This finding, published in the November 3, 2008 PLoS ONE, holds implications for the chronic use of promising new anti-VEGF drugs such as Lucentis, which eliminate abnormal and damaging blood vessel growth and leakage in the retina by neutralizing VEGF.
