Huang Yi-Shiang, Bertrand Virginie, Bozukova Dimitriya, Pagnoulle Christophe, Labrugère Christine, De Pauw Edwin, De Pauw-Gillet Marie-Claire, Durrieu Marie-Christine
Departments of Chemistry & Bio-Medical and Preclinical Sciences, Mass Spectrometry Laboratory & Mammalian Cell Culture Laboratory - GIGA R, Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium; CBMN UMR5248, Institute of Chemistry & Biology of Membranes & Nanoobjects, Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France.
Departments of Chemistry & Bio-Medical and Preclinical Sciences, Mass Spectrometry Laboratory & Mammalian Cell Culture Laboratory - GIGA R, Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2014 Dec 11;9(12):e114973. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114973. eCollection 2014.
Posterior Capsular Opacification (PCO) is the capsule fibrosis developed on implanted IntraOcular Lens (IOL) by the de-differentiation of Lens Epithelial Cells (LECs) undergoing Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition (EMT). Literature has shown that the incidence of PCO is multifactorial including the patient's age or disease, surgical technique, and IOL design and material. Reports comparing hydrophilic and hydrophobic acrylic IOLs have shown that the former has more severe PCO. On the other hand, we have previously demonstrated that the adhesion of LECs is favored on hydrophobic compared to hydrophilic materials. By combining these two facts and contemporary knowledge in PCO development via the EMT pathway, we propose a biomimetically inspired strategy to promote LEC adhesion without de-differentiation to reduce the risk of PCO development. By surface grafting of a cell adhesion molecule (RGD peptide) onto the conventional hydrophilic acrylic IOL material, the surface-functionalized IOL can be used to reconstitute a capsule-LEC-IOL sandwich structure, which has been considered to prevent PCO formation in literature. Our results show that the innovative biomaterial improves LEC adhesion, while also exhibiting similar optical (light transmittance, optical bench) and mechanical (haptic compression force, IOL injection force) properties compared to the starting material. In addition, compared to the hydrophobic IOL material, our bioactive biomaterial exhibits similar abilities in LEC adhesion, morphology maintenance, and EMT biomarker expression, which is the crucial pathway to induce PCO. The in vitro assays suggest that this biomaterial has the potential to reduce the risk factor of PCO development.
后囊膜混浊（PCO）是指植入眼内晶状体（IOL）上的囊膜纤维化，它是由经历上皮-间充质转化（EMT）的晶状体上皮细胞（LEC）去分化形成的。文献表明，PCO的发生率是多因素的，包括患者的年龄或疾病、手术技术以及IOL的设计和材料。比较亲水性和疏水性丙烯酸IOL的报告显示，前者的PCO更严重。另一方面，我们之前已经证明，与亲水性材料相比，LEC在疏水性材料上的黏附更有利。结合这两个事实以及通过EMT途径在PCO发生方面的当代知识，我们提出了一种仿生启发策略，以促进LEC黏附而不发生去分化，从而降低PCO发生的风险。通过将细胞黏附分子（RGD肽）表面接枝到传统的亲水性丙烯酸IOL材料上，表面功能化的IOL可用于重建囊膜-LEC-IOL夹心结构，文献中认为这种结构可防止PCO形成。我们的结果表明，这种创新的生物材料改善了LEC黏附，同时与起始材料相比，在光学（透光率、光学平台）和机械（襻压缩力、IOL注入力）性能方面也表现相似。此外，与疏水性IOL材料相比，我们的生物活性生物材料在LEC黏附、形态维持和EMT生物标志物表达方面表现出相似的能力，而EMT是诱导PCO的关键途径。体外试验表明，这种生物材料有可能降低PCO发生的风险因素。
