Abstract
Purpose :
Currently, there is no pharmacological treatment for pterygium. Surgery is the only solution to this pathology, which sometimes uses coadjuvants that could harm the conjunctiva and cornea. previously demonstrated the effectiveness in vitro of Siempreviva (SV) sap to lower the viability and the presence of vascular growth factors in pterygium fibroblast. Here, we demonstrate the tolerability of Siempreviva formulations on healthy rabbit eyes.
Methods :
32 New Zealand rabbits were treated in accordance with ARVO standards with two different ophthalmic lubricants (hypromellose or hyaluronate) plus a high or low dose of SV. Four experimental groups were formed, one for each formulation, and received one eyedrop three times a day for seven days in the right eye. The left eye was the control without treatment. To evaluate the safety of SV formulations, we photo-documented the treated and the control eye every 24 hours for seven days. We used the following scale to evaluate the degree of irritation: 1: mild changes (subtle elevation of the tissue accompanied by fine and thin conjunctival vessels), 2: moderate changes (conjunctival hyperemia and less elevated lesion), 3: severe changes (conjunctival hyperemia with tortuous vessels and an elevated lesion close to limbus), and 4: chronic changes (yellowish elevated lesion with no conjunctival injection).
Results :
All the rabbits (100%, n=32) from the four treatment groups remained on grade 0 without visible signs of ocular irritation (hyperemia or conjunctival injection) during the seven days of treatment. There was no clinical difference between the treatment and control group (Figure 1).
Conclusions :
During the time of eyedrops administration, the rabbits showed no adverse effects. These SV formulations are well tolerated and could be used in further pre-clinical experiments to evaluate their effectiveness for treating pterygium in future animal models.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.