The effectiveness of edible bird's nest in lowering VEGF, CD31, and PDGFR-β levels in diabetic retinopathy in rats with type 1 diabetes.

Aims: Diabetic eye disease, known as diabetic retinopathy (DR), is one of the problems that can arise from having high blood sugar for an extended period. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the edible bird's nest (EBN) on retinal angiogenesis in diabetic rats.

Methods: The 50 rats were separated into five different groups, each containing 10 rats: control, diabetes (DM), bird's nest-fed diabetes (75 mg/kg Body weight; BW), (EBN 75), (150 mg/kg BW) (EBN 150), and glyburide (GR) for an eight-week study. H&E and Masson's trichrome staining were utilized to investigate the retinal tissue and vascular changes. The immunofluorescence study was used to detect angiogenic protein expression. The vascular corrosion cast/SEM method was also used to evaluate capillary plexus formation within the retinal layer.

Results: From histological studies, DM rats have thinning of the retinal layer. Remarkably, the retinal vessels displayed dilations resembling ruptured blood vessels. The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) (30.51±2.62), cluster of differentiation 31 (CD31) (28.18±0.22), and platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta (PDGFR-β) (141.67±0.97) were increased. EBN 75 exhibited some small improvements in their blood vessels and eye tissue. At a dose of 150 mg/kg BW, EBN proved to be more effective. There was a significant decrease in VEGF and CD31 expression compared with the diabetic group (p<0.001 and p<0.01, respectively).

Conclusions: These studies have demonstrated that EBN can lower the growth levels of VEGF, CD31, and PDGFR-β, which results in a decrease in angiogenesis and a recovery from a variety of diabetic retinopathy-related diseases.