Inhibition of corneal neovascularization by ranibizumab (Lucentis): An experimental study in rabbit cornea [Kornea Neovaskülarizasyonunun Ranibizumab (Lucentis) ile Baski{dotless}lanmasi{dotless}: Tavşan Korneasi{dotless}nda Deneysel Çali{dotless}şma]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the use of the subconjunctival injection of ranibizumab (lucentis) on angiogenesis in the rabbit cornea. corneas of 12 new zealand rabbits were cauterized with silver nitrate crystal. animals were divided in two groups: control group (gc) that received 0.02 ml of 0.9% saline solution; group ranibizumab (gr) that received 0.5 mg of ranibizumab subconjunctivally at the 24th h after the lesion was formed. animals corneas were extracted on the 14th day under general anesthesia. the newly formed vessels digital photographs were obtained and analyzed in a computerized system (google sketch-up program). in the control group,neovascularization covered 64.66%±20.81 (mean±standard deviation [sd]) of the corneal surface,compared with 34.17%±4.53 (mean±sd) in the gr group. when vascular density is compared between treated groups,statistical differences were observed (p<0.002). the results showed an inhibition of angiogenesis when the control group was compared with ranibizumab treated groups. these results suggest that subconjunctival injection of ranibizumab is able to inhibit corneal angiogenesis.