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DewDiligence

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Tuesday, 08/15/2006 3:05:18 AM

Tuesday, August 15, 2006 3:05:18 AM

Post# of 252334
IL-10 May Exacerbate Wet AMD

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/nation/15273518.htm

>>
By Tina Hesman Saey
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Aug. 14, 2006

ST. LOUIS - Scientists at Washington University have made a key discovery in a disease that is the leading cause of blindness in people over age 65. The research also may have implications for vision loss associated with diabetes and premature birth… Results of the new study, led by Dr. Rajendra S. Apte at Washington University, appear on-line in the August issue of the journal PLoS Medicine, a publication of the Public Library of Science.

…Researchers have had clues that the immune system might be involved in regulating the growth of blood vessels in the eye, said Dr. Peter Gehlbach, a retina specialist at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Some studies suggested that the immune system prevents blood vessels from growing into the eye. Others suggested the opposite - the immune system promotes blood-vessel growth, he said. "There was never any clear checkmate winner," Gehlbach said.

The Washington University team used a laser to create a defect in the eyes of mice. Blood vessels then could grow into the area, mimicking macular degeneration. The researchers measured blood-vessel growth in mice lacking certain immune-system proteins.

Mice lacking an anti-inflammatory protein called interleukin-10 (IL-10) had fewer blood vessels invading the retina, and more immune cells called macrophages. Injecting more IL-10 into the eyes increased blood-vessel growth, but injecting macrophages reduced their formation.

Those results mean that macrophages help protect the retina from abnormal blood vessels, but IL-10 blocks the macrophages' protective action. That turns thinking about the way macrophages affect blood-vessel growth on its head, said Dr. Quan Dong Nguyen, also of Johns Hopkins University.

Macrophages are cells that promote inflammation, which scientists have long thought would cause blood vessels to grow. But the new result shows that macrophages and IL-10 affect blood-vessel growth in the opposite direction from what anyone previously thought. The result is "important and extremely novel," Nguyen said.

If researchers can learn to control IL-10, they may be able to develop new drugs that could prevent dry macular degeneration from converting to the blinding, wet form, Bhisitkul said.

The finding also may apply to tumors and other places where abnormal blood vessels develop, Gehlbach said. Some researchers have found evidence that IL-10 may influence blood-vessel growth in the eyes of people with diabetes and in premature babies, Apte said.

The researchers don't yet know whether people with macular degeneration have alterations in IL-10 or if the protein's production changes with age, Apte said.
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