Abstract
Purpose :
To analyze the effects of metformin on central corneal endothelial cell density in an eye bank corneal donor database.
Methods :
An eye bank database consisting of 37,330 corneas (collected from July 2007 to May 2015) was examined. Analyses were conducted to ascertain the impact of metformin on central endothelial cell count (ECC) in three separate disease states: glaucoma, post cataract surgery, and diabetes. All analyses were age stratified (ages 21-40, 41-60, and 61-80). Two-tailed t-tests were conducted for each cohort.
Results :
Metformin had a protective effect on glaucoma patients ages 61-80 (mean ECC with metformin 2532 (n=72), without metformin 2396 (n=642), p-value: 0.0045). However, there was no observable difference in the younger age group, 41-60 (2394 with (n=24), 2484 without (n=187), p-value: 0.35) and there were no donors ages 21-40 who had glaucoma and were on metformin. Metformin had no effect on samples coming from donors who had cataract surgery ages 41- 60 (with metformin 2343 (n=47), without 2429 (n=395), p-value: 0.26) or ages 61-80 (with 2299 (n=245), without 2325 (n=2230), p-value: 0.41). There were no donors in the 21-40 age bracket who had cataract surgery and were on metformin. As for patients with and without diabetes, metformin did not have an effect on ECC for all ages, regardless of a diagnosis of diabetes. Donors ages 21-40 had a mean ECC of 2507 (n=4) with metformin and 2689 (n=57) without metformin, with a p-value of 0.1286. Samples from donors ages 41-60 had a mean ECC 2538 (n=49) with metformin and 2564 (n=216) without it, p-value of 0.72. The samples from the 61-80 age bracket had a mean ECC 2427 (n=90) and 2354 without, with a p-value of 0.20 (n=359).
Conclusions :
Metformin appeared to be associated with higher ECC in donors with glaucoma ages 61-80. However, there was no noticeable effect in glaucoma patients ages 41-60 or in donors who underwent cataract surgery or had diabetes.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.