Abstract
Purpose :
Pterygium is an ocular disease in which the conjunctival tissue grows onto the cornea. When the pterygium tissue reaches the pupillary region, vision will be affected. Currently, surgical removal is the only effective treatment. However, the recurrence rate of pterygium after surgery can be high. Although mitomycin C has been used to decrease recurrence, it is highly toxic to ocular surface tissues. Rho kinase inhibitors are used for lowering intraocular pressure and have been reported to inhibit extracellular matrix deposition in the trabecular meshwork. Therefore, we determined if the less toxic Rho kinase inhibitor can be used to decrease pterygium cell growth and migration.
Methods :
The study was approved by Indiana University School of Medicine IRB. After obtaining inform consent from the patient, we collected surgically removed pterygium tissues. The tissues were dissected and used directly for migration assays or cultured for primary pterygium cell strain establishment. Primary human pterygium cells were grown in the Opti-MEM medium supplemented with 5% FBS and antibiotics, and only cells with early passage numbers (<p7) were used. The cells were treated with DMSO or the Rho kinase inhibitor Y27632 at 10 or 20 µM. The cells were studied using cell migration assay, scratch assay, viability assay, and immunostaining.
Results :
We found that 10uM Y27632 significantly deceased pterygium cell viability (P<0.05; N=3). It also slowed down pterygium cell migration and/or proliferation from pterygium tissues as well as in scratch assays. Y27632 decreased the expression of fibrosis markers including fibronectin, collegen-1 and alpha-smooth muscle actin.
Conclusions :
Conclusion: We found that the Rho kinase inhibitor Y27632 decreased cell migration, delayed wound healing, and decreased expression of myofibroblast marker. We believe that Rho kinases inhibitors are a potential post-surgical treatment to prevent or slow down pterygium recurrence.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.