Abstract
Purpose :
Stem cell therapy for corneal injury is useful and promising. Here, we use different types of stem cell to study their therapeutic potential for corneal damage in animal models.
Methods :
Human derived adipose stem cell (hADSC) and multilineage-differentiating stress-enduring (Muse) cells were isolated from lipoaspirate. Muse cells were differentiated into corneal stromal cells (hiCSCs) in keratocyte differentiation medium. Mouse and tree shrews were used to establish the animal models of corneal wound induced by the debridement of local mechanical keratomileusis. Different types of cell laden and orthogonally stacked two stretched compressed collagen (cell-SCC) disks (3 mm diameter) were affixed to the wounded corneas (n=6). The cell biological characteristics were evaluated. Moreover, aberration and visual quality of tree shrew corneas was simulated and analyzed by MODI2 after post-surgery 90 days.
Results :
All types of cell-SCC grafts had biocompatibility and bio-integration with corneas after implantation in vivo. hiCSC-SCC membrane was most effective way to prevent corneal scar and restored its transparency, even though Muse-SCC, ADSCs-SCC, and scaffolds were also able to reduce the scar area of the cornea to a certain extent (Figure 1A). hiCSCs embedded in SCC membrane of engrafted group survived well, and the implanted corneas presented significantly higher nerve density, thicker epithelium and lesser neovascularization, scar areas and CD45+ cells than those in control in mouse model. All corneas in the Muse-SCC group demonstrated almost transparency, but corneal opacity remained in the ADSC-SCC group after 28 days of surgery. And visible corneal scars in ADSC-SCC group were significantly higher than those in Muse-SCC group. Additionally, there was no difference between implanted autologous Muse cells and implanted allogeneic human Muse cells for corneal transplantation in mouse. Furthermore, the simulated visual acuity (SVA) in hiCSC-SCC implanted tree shrew was significantly improved when compared to the control group after post-surgery 90 days (Figure 1B).
Conclusions :
This study demonstrates that human Muse differentiated CSC (hiCSC) is the most effective way to rapidly and effectively restore vision from corneal injury.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.