AIM: To investigate the effects of apelin-13 on proliferation, migration and capillary-like tube formation of a monkey choroid / retinal endothelial cell line, RF/6A, to clarify whether apelin-13 could promote retinal angiogenesis in vitro.

METHODS: RF/6A cells in good conditions were administrated with DMSO(the control group), apelin-13 at 0.1μmol/L(low dose group)or apelin-13 at 1μmol/L(high dose group). Cell proliferation, migration and capillary-like tube formation were detected by using the MTT assay, scratch assay and matrigel assay, respectively, at 24h after plating the cells.

RESULTS: Cell proliferation was promoted in both low and high dose apelin-13 groups compared to the control cells(P<0.05); the cell migration distance of both apelin-13 groups was significantly greater than that of the control group(P<0.05); and the number of capillary-like tube structures of both apelin-13 groups was significantly larger than that of the control cells(P<0.05). In addition, cell proliferation, migration and tube formation increased as the concentration of apelin-13 increased.

CONCLUSION: Apelin-13 could obviously promote the angiogenesis capacity of RF/6A cells, suggesting that apelin-13 was an important pro-angiogenic factor in retinal endothelial cells.