Research progress in the relationship of interferon-inducible protein-10 with ocular neovascular diseases

Interferon-inducible protein-10 (IP-10) is a member of the ELR^–CXC-chemokine family, a molecule which is paid close attention to current studies.IP-10 can inhibit neovascularization and exert its function on anti-fibrosis as it binds with CXCR3, the only specific receptor to IP-10.Accumulating evidences revealed that IP-10 also involved in the pathologic process of ocular neovascular diseases.It shows that IP-10 was closely associated with subclinical chronic inflammation and involved in the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which would be used as a clinical biomaker to make a definite diagnosis of AMD.The IP-10/CXCR3 signal, expressed on the choroidal endothelial cells, had the ability of suppressing choroidal neovascularization.Moreover, the over expression of IP-10 in the lesions of AMD may be attributed to the induction efficacy of promoting anti-angiogenic factor expression, such as IP-10 by vascular endothelial growth factor.IP-10 had an important role in the pathogenic process of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and might be used as a new indicator to evaluate the severity and prognosis of DR.And IP-10 may have the ability to suppress proliferative DR by interrupting formation of new vessels and promoting fibrosis of new vessels.Experimental study showed that IP-10 can reduce corneal neovascularization by down-regulating the expression of proangiogenic cytokines indirectly and suppressing the migration of vascular endothelial cells and tubegenesis directly.IP-10 is involved in the development of retinopathy of prematurity and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy.Given its unique biological characteristics, IP-10 is expected to be a molecular target to inhibit neovascularization in treatment for ocular neovascular diseases.This article reviews the recent progress in the studies on relationship between IP-10 and several common neovascular eye diseases.