Search for a novel animal model of keratoconus

Session Details

Session Title: Corneal Biomechanics

Session Date/Time: Monday 09/10/2017 | 08:00-10:30

Paper Time: 08:00

Venue: Room 2.1

First Author: : K.Liao CHINA

Co Author(s): :    F. Chen   Q. Zeng                 

Abstract Details

Purpose:

Since there was a lack of animal model of keratoconus, which has been an obstacle for understanding the pathogenesis of the disease and evaluating the efficacy of therapies such as corneal cross-linking. Here, we try to develop an appropriate animal model of keratoconus.

Setting:

Hankou Aier Hospital, Wuhan, China.

Methods:

In this study, we treated New Zealand rabbit corneas by injecting 0.05mg/ml type I collagenase into stroma layer directly with 30 G surgical needle, the injection area was about 3*3 square millimeter in the central cornea. All rabbits received injection only in right eye as experimental group, the left eyes were set as control group. Slit lamp photography, Optical coherence tomography, confocal microscopy of the corneas were evaluated before treatment and at 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks after treatment. Pathology examination of the corneas was performed at 4 weeks after treatment.

Results:

The experimental corneas remained transparency during follow-up as controls. No eye developed keratitis, ulcer or haze. Optical coherence tomography showed corneal central thickness decreased at 1 week after treatment, and became stable at about 3 weeks after injection. Confocal microscopy results showed that collagen fiber structure was destroyed from 1 week after treatment, the keratocyte density was remained as normal. Pathologic examination result showed that the corneal fiber number was decreased in the central area, the structure of epithelium, Descent membrane and endothelium were complete, while Bowman membrane was disappeared. No inflammatory cells were found.

Conclusions:

Therefore, injecting type I collagenase into corneal stroma directly could destroy collagen structure with no inflammation and complications. It’s suggesting that this model replicates aspects of human keratoconus and could be used for investigating therapies for keratoconus.

Financial Disclosure:

NONE