Pretreatment of RPE Cells with Lutein Can Mitigate Bevacizumab-Induced Increases in Angiogenin and bFGF.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To determine whether pretreatment of retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells with lutein can affect the response of cells to bevacizumab therapy. METHODS: One human RPE cell line (ARPE-19) was used for all experiments. The cells were treated with lutein in different concentrations (0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, or 100 µg/ml). After 24 h, all plates were treated with bevacizumab (0.25 mg/ml). Media were harvested 24 h later for sandwich ELISA-based angiogenesis arrays. A Quantibody Human Angiogenesis Array was used in order to quantify the secretion of the following 10 proangiogenic cytokines angiogenin, ANG2, EGF, bFGF, HB-EGF, PDGF-BB, leptin, PIGF, HGF and VEGF. RESULTS: Treatment with bevacizumab alone led to a significant decrease in VEGF, as well as a significant increase in angiogenin and bFGF. Pretreatment with 0.1 and 1.0 µg/ml of lutein led to significant decreases in both bFGF and angiogenin following treatment with bevacizumab compared to bevacizumab treatment alone. Lutein alone did not modify the secretion of proangiogenic cytokines. CONCLUSIONS: Pretreatment of human RPE cells in culture with specific doses of lutein prior to bevacizumab treatment mitigated the increase in bFGF and angiogenin caused by bevacizumab monotherapy.