Antioxidant MitoQ increases viability of human corneal endothelial cells with congenital hereditary endothelial dystrophy-associated mutations.

PURPOSE

To assess the impact of MitoQ, a mitochondria-targeted antioxidant, on viability of human corneal endothelial cell (hCEnC) lines expressing mutations associated with congenital hereditary endothelial dystrophy (CHED) and Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy type 4 (FECD4).

METHODS

wildtype () and mutant () hCEnC lines were created to express either variant 2 (V2) or variant 3 (V3) by stable transduction of hCEnC-21T with lentiviruses containing either or one of the following mutations: V2 (V3) mutants c.374 G>A (c.326 G>A) (CHED), c.1813C>T (c.1765C>T) (CHED), c.2263C>T (c.2215C>T) (CHED), or c.2224 G>A (c.2176 G>A) (FECD4). A hCEnC line was created by stable transduction of hCEnC-21T with an empty lentiviral plasmid. Cell viability was measured by exposing MitoQ treated and untreated cells to oxidative stress agent tert-butyl hydroperoxide (tBH) followed by performing XTT assays and spectrophotometry.

RESULTS

, V2, and V3 hCEnC exposed to ≤0.01 μM MitoQ retained over 90% of the viability of untreated hCEnC. When treated with MitoQ, was able to demonstrate partial restoration of cell viability. All CHED-associated mutant hCEnC lines treated with 0.01 μM MitoQ demonstrated increased viability compared to untreated following exposure to tBH. The FECD4-associated mutant hCEnC line treated with 0.01 μM MitoQ showed no significant increase in cell viability compared to untreated following exposure to tBH.

CONCLUSIONS

Media supplementation with antioxidant MitoQ has beneficial effects on cell viability in hCEnC harboring CHED-associated mutations following exposure to tBH-induced oxidative stress.