Protein injection triggers vessel repair

Once stifled by disease, blood vessels that feed the eye’s retina flourish anew when dosed with the protein angiopoietin-1, researchers report in the Sept. 18 Science Translational Medicine.

In mice with retinopathy, a condition that causes tissue damage in the eye and can lead to blindness, a single injection of angiopoietin-1 into the eye triggers the release of the protein fibronectin (right, green), which fuels the growth of blood vessels (right, red) toward the retina. Researchers hope the protein will one day work as a treatment for retinopathy in people.

Editor's note: This article was updated on September 23, 2013, to give the correct location of the injection and to clarify that fibronectin is a protein.