Abstract
Purpose :
Chemical agents can cause severe corneal trauma that would eventually evolve into limbic insufficiency and corneal blindness if bilateral. Corneal limbal cultures have proven useful, but in these cases are not available. As an alternative, stem cell cultures from oral tissue and subcutaneous fat have been used since they are obtained without risk to the donor eye, are minimally invasive and are widely available in adults. In this work we report the results of oral mucosal epithelial stem cell (OMESC) and mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) implantation in an experimental model of alkali burns in New Zealand white rabbits
Methods :
Oral mucosa and subcutaneous fat cultures were obtained from minimal biopsies of these rabbit tissues. Oral mucosa was cultured (OMESC) from explants using complete culture medium enriched with 10% rabbit platelet factors. Subcutaneous fat (MSCs) was cultured from explants in nutrient culture medium enriched with 20% fetal bovine serum. Once the primary culture was performed, the OMESC and MSCs were seeded on a fibrin membrane that was used as a support for transplantation.
Animals. Sixteen animals (male, 3-4 weeks) were used, 4 per treatment and/or control group. A burn was induced in the corneal epithelium and limbus with NaOH and was left to evolve for 7 days applying systemic medical treatment with antibiotics and corticosteroids, and favoring re-epithelialization with a tarsorrhaphy. Subsequently, they were treated by transplantation of an OMESC implant, MSC implant, cell-free fibrin membrane implant and medical treatment exclusively. The animals were maintained with analgesia and local and systemic anti-inflammatory treatments. A 42-day clinical follow-up was performed and after sacrifice histology was performed to study corneal re-epithelialization
Results :
Both the cell-free fibrin membrane and medical treatment groups showed significant corneal opacifications and presence of conjunctival epithelium in both central and peripheral cornea. Corneas treated with both OMESC and MSC showed mostly absence of pathologic signs (opacity, neovascularization, epithelial defects and fibrovascular tufts), continuous healthy corneal epithelium to the center of the cornea and minimal peripheral conjunctival epithelium in some case
Conclusions :
Cultures made from both oral mucosa and subcutaneous fat are useful in the treatment of alkali burn in this experimental model
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.