Abstract
Purpose :
Inflammation and impaired secretion of lacrimal glands are hallmarks of Sjogren’s syndrome, and promote dryness and inflammation of ocular surface. Recently, extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) were reported to have most of anti-inflammatory activity of MSCs. This study tested the therapeutic potential of MSCs-derived EVs in mouse model of primary Sjögren’s syndrome.
Methods :
In this study, we used 12-week-old NOD.B10.H2b mice, a model for primary Sjögren’s syndrome. Either phosphate buffered saline (PBS) or EVs were injected into intraorbital and extraorbital lacrimal glands. One week later, tear production was measured by phenol red thread test, and the corneal surface was observed for epithelial defects. Infiltration of immune cells in lacrimal glands was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Also, the number of goblet cells was evaluated in the forniceal conjunctiva.
Results :
Injection of EVs into lacrimal glands significantly improved tear production in NOD mice (5.10 ± 0.32 mm), compared to controls with PBS administration (3.19 ± 0.22 mm, p=0.0001). Also, corneal epithelial defects were significantly reduced (p=0.0018). Inflammatory foci of intraorbital lacrimal glands were significantly reduced in EVs-injected mice (51.2 ± 21.7) than controls (72.8 ± 14.2, p=0.02). The number of conjunctival goblet cells was not different between two groups (p=0.617).
Conclusions :
We demonstrated injection of EVs into lacrimal glands promoted tear production and clinically protected the corneal surface in NOD mice. The results suggested that EVs repressed the inflammation in the lacrimal glands.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.