Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: Our group has been successful in making both corneal and oral cultivated epithelial sheets and we have succeeded in transplanting them to patients with severe ocular surface disorders. However, after the clinical application of this new surgical treatment, some patients experienced mild, superficial peripheral neovascularization, just under the cultivated oral epithelial sheets. To elucidate the mechanism of the neovascularization, we compared cultivated corneal epithelial sheets (CCS) with cultivated oral epithelial sheets (COS) to determine the expression of some factors related to angiogenesis Methods: We cultivated both CCS and COS with amniotic membrane as has previously been reported. Immunohistochemistry was used to determine protein expression of anti–angiogenic factors such as Thrombospondin–1 (TSP–1), PEDF, Angiostatin, and Endostatin and of angiogenic factors such as VEGF, and bFGF. As a control we did the same experiments on human corneal and oral epithelium. Human corneal epithelium was obtained from a corneal button from PKP surgery and human oral epithelium was obtained as superfluous tissue from a patient who had undergone oral surgery. Results: The immnohistochemical result for each factor in each sample was simply placed in the list. Above all, staining intensity for TSP–1, PEDF, and Endostatin was significantly higher in CCS than in COS. And staining intensity for VEGF and bFGF was very low in both CCS and COS, although the intensity was high in both human corneal and oral epithelium. Conclusions: This study suggests that superficial peripheral neovascularization depends on the presence of TSP–1, PEDF, and Endostatin. results of immunohistochemistry
Keywords: cornea: epithelium • neovascularization • transplantation