Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 May;50(5):2337-43.
doi: 10.1167/iovs.08-2471. Epub 2008 Dec 20.

The distribution, release kinetics, and biocompatibility of triamcinolone injected and dispersed in silicone oil

Martin S Spitzer  1 , Radoslaw T Kaczmarek, Efdal Yoeruek, Katrin Petermeier, David Wong, Hanno Heimann, Gesine B Jaissle, Karl U Bartz-Schmidt, Peter Szurman
Affiliations

The distribution, release kinetics, and biocompatibility of triamcinolone injected and dispersed in silicone oil

Martin S Spitzer et al. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2009 May.

Abstract

Purpose: Triamcinolone acetonide (TA) has been proposed as an adjuvant to pars plana vitrectomy with silicone oil for the surgical treatment of proliferative vitreoretinopathy and proliferative diabetic retinopathy. However, to date no data about the distribution and pharmacokinetics of lipophilic TA injected into silicone oil have been reported.

Methods: An artificial vitreous space chamber was filled with silicone oil. TA was either injected or dispersed into silicone oil. TA release using a continuous flow model was measured spectrophotometrically. To determine the antiproliferative or cytotoxic effect of the released TA, monolayer cultures of retinal pigment epithelial cells (ARPE19) and retinal ganglion cells (RGC5) were used. Bromodeoxyuridine incorporation, MTT assay, and scanning electron microscopy were performed.

Results: Injected TA sank slowly through the silicone oil and started to sediment below the silicone oil bubble shortly after injection. After the simulated intravitreal injection, no TA could be retrieved from the silicone oil bubble. In contrast, when a suspension of silicone oil and TA was prepared before injection, stable noncytotoxic amounts of TA (25 microg/mL) could be retrieved for up to 90 days. After mere injection (without previous suspension in silicone oil), the sedimented TA crystals showed a pronounced cytotoxic effect.

Conclusions: Intravitreally injected TA does not mix with silicone oil. TA crystals that sediment at the lower border of a silicone oil bubble may be harmful to retinal cells. A suspension of TA in silicone oil may exhibit safer extended release over several days.

PubMed Disclaimer

MeSH terms