Abstract: Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is a serious complication of ocular trauma and vitreoretinal surgery, which can lead to serious visual impairment. Platelet derived growth factors (PDGFs) and their receptors (PDGFRs) are essential for a series of physiological processes, which are very important for the normal development of the body. However, the abnormally expressed PDGFs and PDGFRs can activate the downstream signal pathway and regulate the abnormal proliferation and migration of cells. PDGFs is an important cell mitogen. After ocular trauma or rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, the blood-retinal barrier is destroyed. PDGFs are released  from platelets α particles or autocrine by retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE) to induce cell proliferation and enhance the ability of cell migration, invasion and contraction, which may further lead to tractive retinal detachment after the formation of proliferative membrane. Growth factors outside the PDGFs family in vitreous can indirectly activate PDGFRs, which is enough to cause PVR, and blocking PDGFRs can effectively inhibit PVR. PDGFs and PDGFRs play an important role in the occurrence and development of PVR. (Int Rev Ophthalmol, 2022, 46: 222-227)

Key words: proliferative vitreoretinopathy, platelet derived growth factors, platelet derived growth factors receptors