Ocular Toxicity of Intravitreal Taxol

Abstract

Taxol is a drug isolated from the plant Taxus brevifolia and has been used as an antitumor agent.¹ It is a potent inhibitor of cell replication by acting to stabilize microtubules and thereby completely inhibit fibroblast migration. Taxol has been found to be useful in inhibiting the development of tractional retinal detachments in experimentally induced proliferative vitreoretinopathy in rabbits.^2,3 In this study, we injected 0.1 ml of taxol dissolved in 30% DMSO in balanced salt solution (BSS, Alcon Laboratories, Fort Worth, TX) as a single intravitreal injection into rabbit eyes at concentrations of 10⁻² M, 10⁻³ M, 10⁻⁴ M, 10⁻⁵ M, 10⁻⁶ M, and 10⁻⁷ M. Severe toxicity to the lens and retinal toxicity were noted at taxol concentrations of 10⁻² M. We determined that 0.1 ml of 10⁻⁵ M taxol or lower concentrations can be safely injected as a single intravitreal dose in the rabbit eyes without causing damage to ocular tissues.