Pre-clinical Model of Bullous Keratopathy in Rabbit for Corneal Transplantation of Engineered Corneal Endothelial Grafts.

Abstract

Purpose : To stablish a standardized pre-clinical model of bullous keratopathy in New Zealand white rabbit for transplantation of engineered corneal endothelial grafts.

Methods : Corneal endothelium (CE) insufficiency was induced in New Zealand white rabbit by surgical descemetorhexis under air bubble using a hand-made scrapper. Corneal transparency, area of corneal epithelial staining, central corneal thickness, corneal diameter and corneal endotelial cells (CEC) charcateristics (cell density, coefficient variation of size, hexagonal morphology, minimum size, maximum size, and average size) were evaluated at pre- (0) and post- (1, 7, 14, 21, and 28) post-operative days. Additionally, at the end of the study histopathological findings (epithelial abnormalities, separation of stromal lamellae, and presence of fibrous tissue) were evaluated.

Results : In pre-operative days corneas appears transparents, with negative fluorescein staining, and thin in thickness with normal diameter. CEC characteritics reveal that central CE appears as a monolayer of cells with a regular size and cobblestone-like morphology. Histopathological analisys of cornea show a compact and homogeneous tissue, with stratified epithelium without evidence of abnormalities, an stroma with compact lamellae disposition and CEC under Descemet membrane (DM) in the inner part of cornea.
In the post-operative days, surgical descemetorhexis under air bubble induce a CE insufficiency characterized for: persistent corneal haze, negative fluorescein staining, and increase in corneal thickness with maintenance of corneal diameter. No evidence of CEC for morphological study were observed. Histopatological analisys reveal presence of microcystic and bullae in epithelium, marked separation of stromal lamellae by edema, and fibrous tissue deposition with an evident absence of CEC and DM.

Conclusions : Surgical descemetorhexis under air bubble was an effective procedure to induce the main features of human bullous keratopathy in white rabbit New Zealand, representing a suitable model for strategies based on transplantation of engineered corneal endothelial grafts.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.