Exp Eye Res. 2009 Oct;89(4):597-9. doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2009.06.003. Epub 2009 Jun 11.
Animal studies in mice, rats, rabbits, pigs and hens demonstrated that anterior keratocytes undergo programmed cell death or apoptosis after corneal epithelial injury. Many other wound healing changes subsequently follow the keratocyte apoptosis response. This study evaluated early keratocyte apoptosis after corneal epithelial scrape injury in human eyes scheduled for enucleation for malignancy. Two eyes had corneal epithelial scrape 1 h prior to the enucleation and another eye served as a control and had no corneal scrape prior to enucleation. One additional eye was enucleated, washed with balanced salt solution, and then had the corneal epithelium scraped 1 h prior to processing for analysis. Apoptosis was identified by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay and confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Anterior keratocyte apoptosis was detected in the three corneas that had epithelial scrape injury, but not in the control unwounded cornea. This study confirmed that keratocyte apoptosis is also an early response to corneal epithelial injury in humans and showed that tears are not essential for keratocyte apoptosis to occur in response to epithelial injury.
动物实验研究显示，在角膜上皮损伤后，前角膜细胞会发生程序性细胞死亡或凋亡。随后，许多其他的伤口愈合变化随之发生。本研究评估了恶性肿瘤患者行眼球摘除术前角膜上皮刮除伤后早期的角膜细胞凋亡。其中两只眼在眼球摘除术前 1 小时进行角膜上皮刮除，另一只眼作为对照，在眼球摘除术前不进行角膜上皮刮除。还有一只眼在眼球摘除后，用平衡盐溶液冲洗，然后在进行分析处理前 1 小时进行角膜上皮刮除。通过末端脱氧核苷酸转移酶介导的 dUTP 缺口末端标记（TUNEL）检测法鉴定凋亡，并通过透射电子显微镜（TEM）进行确认。在进行上皮刮除损伤的三只角膜中检测到前角膜细胞凋亡，但在未受伤的对照角膜中未检测到。本研究证实，角膜细胞凋亡也是人类角膜上皮损伤的早期反应，并表明眼泪对于上皮损伤引起的角膜细胞凋亡并不是必需的。
