Studies of a growth hormone antagonist invented by Ohio University researchers suggest the antagonist may prevent a destructive form of several eye diseases, including diabetic retinopathy. In a study published in a recent issue of the journal Scien ce, researchers at Harvard Medical School, Ohio University and Merck Research Laboratories reported findings that confirm a link between growth hormone and the onset of retinal neovascularization, an end stage in many forms of eye disease that causes blindness in millions of Americans each year.

John Kopchick is interviewed by representatives from Fuji-TV, the largest commercial network in Japan, about his research with growth hormone antagonists. Photo: Rick Fatica

Researchers at Harvard induced retinal neovascularization in mice genetically engineered by scientists at Ohio University to produce a growth hormone antagonist and in normal mice treated with a drug that inhibited growth hormone production. The scientists found there was a 33 percent to 44 percent decrease in eye disease when the growth hormone was decreased or blocked.

“It’s been suggested for some time that growth hormone is somehow involved with the onset and progression of diabetic eye disease. This study seems to confirm that,” said John Kopchick, Goll-Ohio Professor of Molecular Biology at Ohio University. Kopchick led a team of scientists with the university’s Edison Biotechnology Institute who invented the growth hormone antagonist and the transgenic mice used in the study.

The findings suggest the use of a growth hormone antagonist or a drug that inhibits growth hormone release may help people with retinal neovascularization, said Lois Smith, lead researcher on the project and professor of ophthalmology at Boston’s Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Ohio University patented the growth hormone antagonist in 1994. Sensus Drug Development Corp. in Austin, Texas, holds the license for the invention and currently is using the technology to develop drugs for human diseases in which growth hormone is elevated or has been implicated.