Capillary endothelial cell migration: stimulating activity of aqueous humor from patients with ocular cancers.

In double-masked studies, various concentrations of aqueous humor (AH) from 157 patients (208 samples) with ocular cancers, nonmalignant ocular lesions, and normal eyes were added to bovine capillary endothelial (BCE) cells plated onto gold-coated cover slips. The phagokinetic tracks made by 100 cells at each concentration were traced, and the mean area of migration plus or minus the standard error of the mean was determined. Data are expressed as the percentages of increase in mean track area made by 100 cells incubated in medium that contained AH samples beyond the mean area of 100 cells incubated in medium alone. The percentage increases in migration-stimulating activity were as follows: a) malignant ocular disease--retinoblastoma (30 samples), 34 +/- 2; malignant melanoma (55 samples), 37 +/- 3; b) nonmalignant ocular disease--cataracts, glaucoma, pseudoglioma, and diabetic retinopathy (36 samples), 14 +/- 2; c) control AH--no ocular disease (51 samples), 9 +/- 1; normal eyes and systemic cancer (36 samples), 38 +/- 6. The percentage increase in endothelial cell migration was as great in cases of systemic cancer as it was in cases of ocular cancer. The endothelial cell migration-stimulating activity in AH from patients with intraocular cancers was significantly higher than the levels in the other groups of patients having no systemic cancer (P much less than .001). In addition, when the results were compared in the control group and the group with benign ocular disease, no significant differences were detected (P greater than .01).