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Use of Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Treat Corneal Opacity Acquired through Injury and Infection
Author(s) -
Elzarka Mohamed,
Call Mindy,
Kao Winston W.Y.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.1007.31
Subject(s) - cornea , stroma , umbilical cord , medicine , ophthalmology , mesenchymal stem cell , stem cell , stromal cell , pathology , anatomy , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , immunohistochemistry
optical refractive power can be attributed to the cornea. An important tissue within the cornea is the corneal stroma, which accounts for 90% of corneal thickness and which is composed of interwoven collagen fibrils, proteoglycans, and sparsely distributed keratocytes. The lattice arrangement and spacing of the collagen fibrils in the stroma allows for transparency, permitting light to refract through the stroma correctly. Disruption of the collagen fibril architecture through conditions such as corneal injury, bacterial infection, and complications from surgical interventions, can lead to increased corneal opacity and a loss in vision acuity. Previous work in our lab has shown that human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUMSCs) have been able to partially rescue the thin, cloudy corneas of collagen V‐null mice with little to no immune rejection or inflammation. This projects aims to translate this learning into insight on how to aid in corneal repair, and hypothesizes that hUMSCs would similarly improve corneal opacity brought about by corneal injury and bacterial keratitis infection. Wildtype C57BL/6 mice were used to create two study groups. The first group was used to model corneal injury and received bilateral keratectomies (2mm in diameter) of the corneal epithelium and anterior corneal stroma. The second group modeled corneal infection and was bilaterally infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (strain PA01). Mice in each group were subsequently treated on one eye with hUMSCs through a stem‐cell‐infused fibrin gel applied directly to the corneal surface. Corneal opacity was assessed in these eyes and in contralateral controls that did not receive hUMSC treatment using Heidelberg Retinal Tomography. Our results indicate that among eyes that underwent keratectomy, hUMSC‐treated eyes had significantly reduced corneal opacity as compared to their contralateral controls. Similarly, infected eyes treated with stem cells show a reduction in opacification as compared to non‐treated, infected eyes. These results implicate the efficacy of using hUMSCs in treating acquired corneal disease and have led to ongoing experimentation in assessing the hUMSC immunomodulatory response in bacterial infection.