Figure 5. Systemic VEGF-A₁₆₅b prevents diabetes-induced increase in solute flux.

(A) Sprague–Dawley female rats were induced with diabetes using STZ (50 mg/kg i.p., n=10) and control rats (n=5) were injected with saline (i.p.) on day 0. After 4 days, blood glucose was tested and blood glucose ≥ 15mmol/l were deemed diabetic. (B) Diabetic rats were treated with either vehicle (saline, biweekly i.p., n=5) or VEGF-A₁₆₅b (20 ng/g, biweekly i.p., n=5). At 8 weeks post-STZ induction, Evans Blue (EB, 45 mg/kg) was injected i.v. into terminally anaesthetized rats. Plasma was collected every 15 minutes for 2 h, after which, animals were killed and retinae were excised. (C) Retinae were weighed and EB was extracted using formamide, allowing EB solute flux (C) and permeability surface area product (D) to be calculated; Kruskal–Wallis test with Dunn's post-hoc test, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001.