Injection of Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide into the Eye Improves Corneal Transplant Survival (IMAGE)
Caption
This is the effect of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) treatment on high-risk corneal transplant survival. Animals underwent high-risk allogeneic corneal transplantation and received treatment with VIP at 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 days after transplantation. A: VIP treatment significantly decreases graft opacity scores at 4 to 8 weeks post-transplantation (*P < 0.05, Mann-Whitney test). B: Weekly examination of grafts for 8 weeks demonstrates a significant increase in graft survival in VIP-treated mice compared with the controls (85% vs 0%; hazard ratio 0.10, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.26, ††††P < 0.0001, Log rank test). Each group consists of n=14. C: Representative confocal micrographs of central area of transplanted corneas in VIP-treated mice and in controls at 1, 2, and 8 weeks post-transplantation. Corneal endothelial cell-to-cell junction were stained and visualized with zonula occluden-1 (ZO-1, green). The scale bars are equal to 100μm (×400 magnification). D: Bar diagram of central corneal endothelial cell (CEnC) densities show significantly higher CEnC density in VIP-treated group compared with the control at 8 weeks post-transplantation (P = 0.02, Man-Whitney test). CEnC density in VIP-treated group did not reach statistical significance at weeks 1 and 2 after transplantation compared to the control (P = 0.11 and P = 0.06, respectively). Horizontal line represents the CEnC density of naïve age-matched C57BL/6 corneas. Each group consists of n=5 corneas. All data are presented as mean ±SEM, and data from one out of two independent experiments are shown.
Credit
<i>American Journal of Pathology</i>
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