Abstract
Purpose :
To study the repair effect of BMP4 on corneal epithelial injury compared with bevacizumab.
Methods :
In this experimental study, MTT assay was used to compare BMP4 and bevacizumab effect on rat corneal epithelial and stromal cells. The corneal epithelial cell suspension treated with the two different drugs was planted on a culture dish treated with fibronectin, and the adhesion of the cells was observed. We applied cell scratch assays to observe the migration of corneal epithelial cells after treatment with the two different drugs.
Results :
Compared with bevacizumab, the survival rate of the corneal epithelial and stromal cells in the BMP4 group was higher, especially the survival rate of stromal cells was more obvious. Data analysis showed that BMP4 accelerated the expansion of corneal epithelial cells and promoted adhesion of cells to extracellular matrices compared to bevacizumab. This suggested that BMP4 can promote the healing of epithelial wounds by promoting adhesion of epithelial cells. With cell scratch assay, BMP4 protein can significantly promote corneal epithelial cell growth and migration. Although bevacizumab also had certain promoting effect, the effect is not obvious compared with BMP4. The above experiments have three sets of parallel controls. The above three groups of comparative tests are statistically significant.
Conclusions :
According to the existing samples, we can see the general trend: BMP4 could play a significant role in the proliferation, adhesion and migration of corneal epithelial cells, and its effect is better than bevacizumab. We will further compare the effects of two drugs on corneal epithelial healing in rat corneal epithelial abrasion model.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.