Abstract
Purpose :
Corneal endothelial cells (CECs) on the posterior corneal surface were exposed to aqueous humor flow-induced shear stresses. The changes of the bovine CEC phenotypes by altered shear flow were subsequently investigated.
Methods :
The bovine CEC line (CRL-2048TM, ATCC) was cultured on the microfluidic chip that could be exposed to several different shear stresses. The microfluidic chip was fabricated by a conventional soft-lithography technique. The cells were cultured on the chip for 1 day and exposed to the different shear stresses for 6 hours. Subsequently, the pictures of the cultured cells were taken at every 5 minutes. The shear stress was applied at 0 to 0.1 dyne/cm2. The speed of cellular movement and the migratory persistence defined as the ratio of the straight distance to the actual distance of cell migration were analyzed.
Results :
The average speed was 0.58 μm/min in the control (0.0 dyne/cm2), 0.60 μm/min in the low shear stress group (LS, 0.01 dyne/cm2), and 0.18 μm/min in the high shear stress group (HS, 0.1 dyne/cm2). No directional migration with respect to direction of shear flow was observed. The directional persistence was 0.52, 0.49, and 0.52 in the control, LS, and HS group, respectively.
Conclusions :
The corneal endothelial cells exerted lower average speed in response to higher shear stress. Further investigation of the cellular response to the change in shear stress is needed.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.