Abstract
Purpose:
To quantify and compare corneal hem- and lymphangiogenesis between alkali burn- and suture-induced corneal neovascularization (CNV) in C57BL/6 and FVB mouse strains.
Methods:
A retrospective analysis was performed on 6 to 12 alkali burn- and suture-induced neovascularized corneas in 6- to 10-week old C57BL/6 and FVB mice. CNV was induced by (i) surface caustication with NaOH or (ii) intrastromal placement of three 10.0 nylon sutures. Four, 7, 10 and 14 days later mice were sacrificed and eyes collected for immunofluorescence analysis. Hemangiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis were quantitatively analyzed on whole mounted corneas using anti-CD31 and anti-LYVE1 antibodies. Data were analyzed by unpaired Student’s t-test and differences between groups were considerated statistically significant with P < 0.05.
Results:
Blood vessel growth was similar between (i) alkali burn and suture-induced CNV in C57BL/6 mice, and (ii) between C57BL/6 and FVB sutured strains. On the contrary, corneal lymphangiogenesis was more pronounced in the C57BL/6 sutured mice versus the alkali burn group, and in the FVB strain versus both C57BL/6 models.
Conclusions:
Significant differences occur in lymphangiogenesis, but not hemangiogenesis, in the alkali burn and suture-induced models in C57BL/6 mice. Furthermore, lymphangiogenesis is more pronounced in the albino (FVB) strain after suture placement. We suggest that the suture model has a number of advantages and may be preferentially used to study corneal lymphangiogenesis.
Keywords: 609 neovascularization •
480 cornea: basic science