Dexamethasone inhibition of experimental endothelial cell proliferation in retinal venules.

The observation that endothelial cell proliferation in retinal blood vessels is induced by ocular trauma in rats has been extended to mice. Indomethacin, 10 mg/kg/day, failed to block incorporation of tritiated thymidine into nuclei of venular endothelial cells in rat retinas observed 40 hr after puncturing the lens, but dexamethasone effectively suppressed tritiated thymidine incorporation, with 50% inhibition obtained with 0.2 mg/kg/day. The prostaglandin pathway does not appear essential to the activation of endothelial cell proliferation in this system.