Basic fibroblast growth factor stimulates 3H-thymidine uptake in retinal venular and capillary endothelial cells in vivo.

Recent studies have found basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), an angiogenic peptide, in retina and have suggested that bFGF is responsible for retinal vascular proliferation. To test the hypothesis that bFGF stimulates 3H-thymidine uptake in retinal vascular cells in vivo, we injected bFGF (100 ng) into the vitreous cavity of six cats at 0 hr and again at 24 hr. Eight control eyes received boiled bFGF or no injection. After 46 hr, 3H-thymidine was injected into the vitreous cavity of all eyes and 2 hr later the eyes were enucleated. Intense 3H-thymidine uptake was seen in eyes with bFGF (56 +/- 20 SD positive cells per section) but not in control eyes (7-10 positive cells per section (P less than 0.001). Trypsin digest preparations showed that the thymidine uptake was predominantly in the venular (89%) and capillary (10%) endothelium and not in arterioles (1%) (P less than 0.001). The data suggest that retinal venular endothelial cells respond preferentially to exogenous bFGF, and in part may explain their prominent role in the neovascular process. In a second group of experiments to test the hypothesis that retinal ischemia releases a diffusable factor similar to bFGF that can cause 3H-thymidine uptake in retinal vascular cells, we created branch retinal vein occlusion in six cat eyes. The fellow eyes received no injections. In the eyes with branch vein occlusion there was an intense 3H-thymidine uptake within the distribution of the occluded vein (84 +/- 77 SD positive cells per section), but none in the areas outside the occluded vein (P less than 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)