Fondazione Banca degli Occhi del Veneto, Via Paccagnella 11, 30174 Venice, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Nov 5;25(22):11884. doi: 10.3390/ijms252211884.
We investigated which specific correlation exists between the endothelial cell density (ECD) of corneal endothelial cell (CEC) cultures and the features of the donor corneas from which they originate. CEC cultures were prepared from one donor cornea or by pooling together cells of more corneas from elderly donors with ECDs lower or higher than 2000 cells/mm. The ECDs of such primary cultures were evaluated and showed that that ECDs > 2000 cells/mm can be obtained only when CECs are isolated from (1) corneas of young donors; (2) at least two elderly donor corneas (if ECD > 2000 cells/mm), or three elderly donor corneas (if ECD < 2000 cells/mm). Secondary cultures are all characterized by ECDs < 2000 cells/mm. Our study highlights the difficulties in obtaining cultures with ECDs > 2000 cells/mm. Even if achievable with corneas from young donors, this becomes a challenging task when corneas from elderly donors are used (i.e., the overall majority of those collected by eye banks) and particularly when corneas from elderly donors with ECD < 2000 cells/mm are used. Pooling more of two corneas to obtain suitable CECs could technically overcome the problem. The above issues should be tackled appropriately before moving into clinical studies.
我们研究了角膜内皮细胞（CEC）培养物的内皮细胞密度（ECD）与供体角膜特征之间存在的具体相关性，这些供体角膜来源于 ECD 低于或高于 2000 个细胞/mm 的老年供体。从一个供体角膜或从多个 ECD 低于或高于 2000 个细胞/mm 的老年供体角膜中分离出来的细胞中制备 CEC 培养物。评估这些原代培养物的 ECD，结果表明，只有当 CEC 从（1）年轻供体的角膜中分离出来；（2）至少两个 ECD 高于 2000 个细胞/mm 的老年供体角膜，或三个 ECD 低于 2000 个细胞/mm 的老年供体角膜时，才能获得 ECD 高于 2000 个细胞/mm 的培养物。二次培养物的 ECD 均小于 2000 个细胞/mm。我们的研究强调了获得 ECD 高于 2000 个细胞/mm 的培养物的困难。即使可以从年轻供体的角膜中获得，当使用老年供体的角膜（即眼库收集的绝大多数角膜）时，特别是当使用 ECD 低于 2000 个细胞/mm 的老年供体的角膜时，这就成为一项具有挑战性的任务。通过汇集两个以上的角膜来获得合适的 CEC 可以在技术上克服这个问题。在进行临床研究之前，应该妥善解决上述问题。
