The Effect Of Genistein On Hypoxia-Induced Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor Expression In Human Retinal Pigment Epithelium Cells

Retinal neovascularization plays a key role in the pathophysiology of ocular diseases, including diabetic retinopathy, hypertensive retinopathy and retinal vein occlusion, which present most common causes of blindness. The abnormal new blood vessels can grow into the vitreous of the eye and result in vitreoretinal traction and retinal detachment. The same character of the retinal neovascularization is pathophysiological dysfunction associated with vascular complications of retinopathy.Genistein (4',5',7'-trihydroxyisoflavone), a classic tyrosine kinases inhibitor, has a wide variety of effects on chemoprevention of breast and prostate cancers, prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease and many other chronic diseases. Recently, it has been reported that genistein could inhibit ocular neovascularization which was induced by intrastromal implantation of pellets containing bFGF in vivo. In our previous study, we also found genistein could inhibit VEGF and HIF-1 expression induced by CoCl₂ and hypoxia in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells. It was also reported that genistein significantly inhibit bFGF expression after treatment with hypoxia in other cell lines. However, both...