New ex vivo model of corneal endothelial phacoemulsification injury and rescue therapy with mesenchymal stromal cell secretome

Abstract

To develop a reproducible exvivo model of corneal endothelial cell injury using phacoemulsification in porcine eyes and to evaluate the effects of mesenchymal stromal cell secretome in this injury model. Department of Ophthalmology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois, USA. Experimental study. A corneal endothelial injury model was optimized using different powers and durations of ultrasound energy inside exvivo porcine eyes. Conditioned media from corneal mesenchymal stem cells was collected under serum-free conditions from passages 4 to 6. Immediately after the phacoemulsification injury, the anterior chamber fluid was replaced with unconditioned media or conditioned media and incubated at 37°C for 4hours. At the end, endothelial cell viability was evaluated using trypan blue staining and analyzed with ImageJ software. Using specific parameters (50% power for 30seconds), phacoemulsification inside fresh porcine eyes led to a consistent level of endothelial cell injury. Incubation with corneal mesenchymal stromal cell-conditioned media after the injury significantly reduced endothelial cells loss compared with unconditioned media (mean1.29%±0.91% [SD] and 5.33%±3.24%, respectively, P<.05). Phacoemulsification inside fresh porcine eyes provided a reproducible model to study endothelial cell injury. Treatment with corneal mesenchymal stromal cell secretome after injury appeared to significantly enhance the survival of corneal endothelial cells. This might provide a new strategy for preventing corneal endothelial cell loss after phacoemulsification or other endothelial injuries. Further invivo studies are necessary to determine the therapeutic potential.