University Eye Hospital Tübingen

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Medicine

Glutamate and Hypoxia as a Stress Model for the Isolated Perfused Vertebrate Retina

Kai Januschowski¹, Sebastian Müller¹, Carlo Krupp¹, Martin S. Spitzer¹, José Hurst¹, Maximilian Schultheiss¹, Karl-Ulrich Bartz-Schmidt¹, Peter Szurman¹, Sven Schnichels¹

¹Centre for Ophthalmology, University Eye Hospital Tübingen

With this study, we introduce a standardized stress model for the isolated superfused bovine retina for future preclinical therapeutic testing. The effect of either hypoxia (pure N₂) or glutamate stress (250 µM glutamate) on retinal function represented by a- and b-wave amplitudes was evaluated.

Medicine

A Porcine Corneal Endothelial Organ Culture Model Using Split Corneal Buttons

Daniel A. Wenzel¹, Berenike C. Kunzmann², Nils A. Steinhorst¹, Martin S. Spitzer¹, Maximilian Schultheiss¹

¹Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), ²University Eye Hospital, Center For Ophthalmology, University Hospital Tübingen

Here, a step-by-step protocol for the preparation and cultivation of porcine split corneal buttons is presented. As this organo-typically cultivated organ culture model shows cell death rates within 15 days, comparable to human donor corneas, it represents the first model allowing long-term cultivation of non-human corneas without adding toxic dextran.