Abstract
Purpose: :
To investigate a survival and safety after human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCS) injected into the vitreous body in rabbits.
Methods: :
The hUC-MSCs from Umbilical Cord of human were isolated, passaged, amplified and puritied. Twenty seven pigmented rabbits were used for this study and divided into 3 groups randomly: 1 week group(n=9), 2 weeks group(n=9) and 4 weeks group(n=9) after hUC-MSCS injection. The right eyes in 3 groups were received intravitreal injection GFP-expressing hUC-MSCs (GFP-hUC-MSCS) as experimental eyes. The left eyes were accepted intravitreal injection of the culture medium at same volume as control eyes. The survival of GFP-hUC-MSCs were observed under the fluorescence microscope. The anterior segment of eyes was examined by slit-lamp microscope and ocular fundus was observed by indirect funduscopy, fundus photography and fundus fluorescence angiography, and intraocular pressure was measured by Tono-Pen tonometer before and after injection of hUC-MSCs. OCT scan was tested before and 1week, 2 and 4 weeks after injection. After 4 weeks, the rabbits were euthanized and eyes were enucleated for paraffin section with HE staining, examining the cornea, chamber angle, lens and retina.
Results: :
Four weeks after injection, a large number of the GFP-hUC-MSCS still survived in the vitreous body, along with the inner limiting membrane. The anterior segment of eyes after injecting hUC-MSCS was normal. Indirect funduscopy and fundus photography showed no change in retina between the injected hUC-MSCS eyes and control in this rabbit model. Fundus fluorescence angiography evidenced no hyperfluorescence, hypofluorescence and leakage in retina at 1week, 2, 4 weeks after injection. There was no significant difference comparing with IOP before and after hUC-MSCS injection at any stage of study in every group(p > 0.05). OCT scan image showed that the retinal neurosensory layer and retinal pigment epithelial layer were no detachment, which showed almost same before and after hUC-MSCS injection at each time points. There was no obvious abnormal at cornea, chamber angle, lens, retinal structure under light microscope in every group.
Conclusions: :
Intravitreal injection of hUC-MSCs may be considered as feasibility and safety.
Keywords: injection • vitreous • microscopy: light/fluorescence/immunohistochemistry