BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Arresting infant retinopathy

January 15, 2009 8:00 AM UTC

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic have found that activating hypoxia-inducible factor can prevent the progression of retinopathy in premature infants, which results in blindness if left unchecked. The findings, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,open a new window for treating retinopathy of prematurity, although the challenge will be to pinpoint the proper time frame for administering HIF activators.

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), which affects more than 75% of severely premature infants, has two phases, which are based on the oxygen-regulated expression of VEGF.1 In the initial hyperoxic phase of the disease, decreases in VEGF lead to oxygen-induced vascular obliteration of the developing retina...