Abstract
Purpose:
To investigate the effect of porcine chondrocyte derived extracellular matrix (PCDECM) on the pterygial tissue growth in mouse model.
Methods:
Human pterygial epithelial cells were isolated and cultured from the specimens during the surgical removal (IRB No. : 12128). Cultured cells were stained with pan-CK, CK3/2p, vimentin, mucin-1, and CK13 for the confirmation of pterygial epithelial cells. PCDECM were supplied from the another laboratory (Regenprime Co. Ltd., Gyeonggi-do, South Korea), which was manufactured with the method described elsewhere. To establish pterygium murine model, 10,000 cells in 10 microliters of PBS were injected to the nasal subconjunctival space in both eyes of athymic nude mice. PCDECM dissolved in PBS (25 mg/mL, 10 microliters) were injected to the nasal subconjunctival space in the right eye 7, 10 and 14 days after epithelial cell injection (ECM group), and PBS (10 microliters) were injected to the same area of the opposite eye as same schedule as the left eye (control group). Image analysis with the photograph was performed using ImageJ® to compare the lesion size.
Results:
Isolated pterygial cells were positive for pan-CK, CK3/2p, vimentin and mucin-1, and negative for CK13 under immunofluorescence microscopy. Pterygial lesion in mouse model was confirmed 7 days after subconjunctival injection of humal pterygial epithelial cells. There was no significant difference in lesion size baseline (7 days after epithelial cell injection; 25.6% in ECM group vs. 24.9% in control group, expressed as the ratio of lesion area to entire cornea). On the day 17 after epithelial cell injection, the lesion size compared to the entire cornea was increased to 35.4% in control group, however, ECM group showed less change in size as 26.4% (9.8 % point and 0.8 % point increase from the baseline, respectively).
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that PCDECM seems to suppress pterygial epithelial cell growth and it could be used as a promising material for the noninvasive treatment of pterygium.
Keywords: 665 pterygium •
503 drug toxicity/drug effects •
474 conjunctiva