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Blood Shot

Investigating treatment of vision-compromising blood vessel overgrowth in the eye

21 August 2019

Blood Shot

Like all of our healthy tissues, our eyes are riddled with blood vessels – vascular networks which supply valuable chemicals to our peepers. But a condition called iris neovascularisation (INV) can cause vessel overgrowth, leading to rubeosis iridis and a type of glaucoma. Here two techniques investigate a promising treatment for INV in the eye of a 79-year old man – injections which aim to control a protein called VEGF inside eye cells, taming blood vessel growth. On the top, patterns of blood flow around the iris (seen in red on the cross-section on the right) are used to map out the blood vessel network using a computer algorithm (left). Underneath, the VEGF treatment (bottom) has clearly reduced the INV. Further developments may make these techniques more sensitive, allowing ophthalmologists to detect and treat eye problems earlier in life.

Written by John Ankers

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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