Concentrations of VEGF and PlGF Decrease in Eyes After Intravitreal Conbercept Injection

INTRODUCTION: Conbercept is a new anti-vascular endothelial growth factor drug approved for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) in 2013. In this study, we for the first time evaluated the concentrations of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and placental growth factor (PlGF) after patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy were treated with intravitreal conbercept (IVC) injection. METHODS: Sixteen patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy were randomly divided into two equal groups (A and B). Nine patients with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment were used as the control group. The patients in group A received 0.5 mg IVC and their aqueous humor was collected. After 7 days, all patients underwent vitrectomy, and their aqueous and vitreous humor were collected. RESULTS: In the aqueous humor, the concentrations of VEGF and PlGF were higher pre- than post-IVC injection in group A. Similarly, the concentrations of VEGF and PlGF in group A (pre-IVC) and group B were higher than those in the control group. In vitreous humor, the concentrations of VEGF and PlGF were higher in group B than those in the control group, and the concentrations of VEGF were lower in group A (post-IVC) than those in group B. CONCLUSIONS: Our study proved that the concentration of VEGF and PlGF reduced after IVC injection in aqueous humor. However, the concentration of PlGF did not reduce after IVC injection in vitreous humor.