Abstract
Purpose :
The lacrimal gland is a critical component of the tear functional unit. Aqueous tear-deficient dry eye is a multifactorial chronic disorder in which the lacrimal glands fail to produce enough tears to maintain a healthy eye surface. Study of human lacrimal epithelial cell biology is limited by poor access to tissue and difficulty with primary cultures. In this study, we investigated human lacrimal gland tissue to determine the presence of progenitor cell markers and lacrimal epithelial markers by immunostaining and cell culture.
Methods :
Six human lacrimal gland tissues from healthy donors were collected and immediately placed in culture medium and then shipped overnight at 4 °C. One part of the lacrimal gland tissue was prepared for immunofluorescence staining and the other part of the tissue was prepared for primary cell. Immunofluorescence analysis was conducted to evaluate lacrimal epithelial phenotype and progenitor cell markers for 5 passages.
Results :
Human lacrimal gland tissue expressed a number of epithelial progenitor cell markers. The presence of precursor cell markers C-Kit, K15, ABCB5, P63, Pax6 and Sox2 was observed in lacrimal gland tissues. Lacrimal gland epithelial cells were successfully cultured and passaged to P5. The cultured lacrimal gland epithelial cells were positive for Pan-cytokeratin, AQP5, Rab3D, ABCB5, C-kit, K15, Ki67 and P63.
Conclusions :
Human lacrimal gland tissues contain precursor marker-positive cells and those marker expression were also detected in ex-vivo cultured cells. It would help future study in developing cell based therapies for dry eye disease.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.