Abstract
PurposeCreating controllable, reproducible keratectomy wounds in rodent corneas can be a challenge due to their small size, thickness, and the lack of usual tools available for human eyes such as a vacuum trephine. The purpose of this work is to provide a consistent, reproducible corneal stromal defect in rats using a simple, economical, and customized inner-stopper guarded trephine.MethodsThe inner-stopper guarded trephine is used to induce a circular wound in rat corneas. After trephination, the corneal flap can be removed by manual dissection using a blunt spatula. We used optical coherence topography (OCT) to measure the defect wound depth induced in ex vivo rat eyes.ResultsDespite a minor learning curve, this simple device enables depth control, reduces variability of manual keratectomy wound depth in rats, and decreases the risk for corneal perforation during keratectomy. Corneal defect creation was highly reproducible across different researchers and was independent of their surgical training.ConclusionThis inner-stopper guarded trephine can be utilized and applied to pre-clinical testing of a wide range of corneal wound healing therapies, including but not limited to biotherapeutics, corneal prosthetics, and regenerative technologies.
Highlights
The 2.38 mm measurement refers to the inner stopper
optical coherence topography (OCT) images in Figure 2 show the range of defect depths possible by this method, from shallow to deep
The protocol in this study describes a simple modification of a trephine that produces a relatively consistent corneal keratectomy wounds in rats
Summary
The cornea is the transparent, outermost part of the eye that is responsible for protecting intraocularAccess this article online Website: https://knepublishing.com/index.php/JOVR DOI: 10.18502/jovr.v16i4.9743 eye structures and focusing light onto the retina.[1] It is susceptible to exposure-related injuries such as burns involving chemical, thermal, and radiation sources, as well as physical trauma.[2] Diseases and injuries to the cornea result in impaired vision due to scarring, clouding, thinning, amongThis is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.How to cite this article: Le PB,# Chen F,# Myung D. A Simple Inner-Stopper Guarded Trephine for Creation of Uniform Keratectomy Wounds in Rodents. J Ophthalmic Vis Res 2021;16:544–551.
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