Abstract
Purpose :
The purpose of this study was to test our hypothesis that our ocular wound chamber (OWC) could be successfully and safely utilized in our exposure keratopathy guinea pig model to prevent the development of exposure keratopathy while allowing the periocular tissues to heal.
Methods :
A blepharotomy was performed on the left eyelids of anesthetized Institute Armand Frappier (IAF) hairless, female guinea pigs (Crl:HA-Hrhr). Prior to surgical procedures, excess hair around the left eye was removed with Nair™ (30 s). The eyes were covered with Refresh® Lacri-Lube® during hair removal for protection. After successful surgical procedures and hair removal, the remaining skin was cleaned with 70% EtOH. Animals were grouped randomly (N=6). An OWC was placed over the left eye of 6 animals and 0.5 ml GenTeal® gel was injected into the chamber. Animals were monitored daily and fully assessed at 48 and 96 hours post injury via white light, fluorescein, and OCT imaging and intraocular pressure (IOP) monitoring. Samples of skin tissue were analyzed for cytokines via Luminex® multiplex analysis.
Results :
There were decreases in fluorescein uptake at 48 and 96 hr and a significant 95% decrease in the amount of fluorescein uptake at 96 hr between the group in which an OWC was utilized and the group in which no OWC was employed. Inflammatory cytokines IL-13 and IL-5 were significantly lower in skin samples from animals that were treated (IL-13: 80.39 pg/ml, IL-5: 44.87 pg/ml) with the OWC when compared to untreated skin samples (IL-13: 146.127 pg/ml, IL-5 104.374 pg/ml) and controls (IL-13: 185.70 pg/ml, IL-5:101.140 pg/ml). No significant differences were seen in the corneal thickness (approximately 200 mm) or the IOP (approximately 10 mmHg) between any of the groups.
Conclusions :
This OWC device successfully prevented the development of exposure keratopathy in our guinea pig model. Not only was this device shown to be safe and effective in reducing the formation of corneal defects, but treatment with the OWC also resulted in the significant decreases in inflammatory cytokines IL-5 and IL-13 in skin samples. These results indicate that this device may be further developed as a device to treat not only ocular wounds and infections, but also heal the periorbital tissue.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.