Evaluating Therapeutic and Chemical Toxicity Using Organ-Cultured Porcine Corneas and Epithelial Wound Healing

Summary

Porcine corneal ex vivo organ culture and epithelial wound healing provide an economical, ethical, reproducible, and quantitative means for testing the ocular toxicity of chemicals. They also aid in elucidating mechanisms underlying the regulation of epithelialization and tissue repair, and in evaluating therapeutics for treating diabetic keratopathy and delayed wound healing.

Abstract

Due to its anatomical and physiological similarities to the human eye, the porcine eye serves as a robust model for biomedical research and ocular toxicity assessment. An air/liquid corneal culture system using porcine eyes was developed, and ex vivo epithelial wound healing was utilized as a critical parameter for these studies. Fresh pig corneas were processed for organ culture, with or without epithelial wounding. The corneas were cultured in a humidified 5% CO₂ incubator at 37 °C in MEM, with or without testing agents. Corneal permeability and wound healing rates were measured, and epithelial cells and/or whole corneas can be processed for immunohistochemistry, western blotting, and qPCR for molecular and cellular analyses. This study describes a detailed protocol and presents two studies using this ex vivo system. The data show that porcine corneal organ culture, combined with epithelial wound healing, is a suitable ex vivo model for chemical toxicity testing, studying diabetic keratopathy, and identifying potential therapies.

Introduction

While cell models possess limited clonal populations and fail to reproduce an organism's in vivo architecture, organ culture or explant offers insights into organ function, development, disease mechanisms, and potential therapies while providing ethical and physiological advantages over other experimental models^1,2. In addition to reducing the number of animals needed, culturing explants control and sensibly manipulate the surrounding conditions, which is ideal for a detailed exploration of factors controlling cell proliferation, migration, wound response, and cellular differentiation in ....

Protocol

Since fresh pig corneas are a byproduct of the food industry, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee did not need to approve their use for research. Unlike human corneas used in research, there are no biohazard concerns, and unused parts of pig eyes can be disposed of as regular garbage. The reagents and equipment used for this study are listed in the Table of Materials.

1. Preparation for organ culture

1. Add penicillin-streptomycin to the M.......

Discussion

Cultured bovine and mostly porcine corneas have been used to assess the toxicities of cosmetic chemicals, glaucoma medications, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs^21,26. Pig corneas have also been used as an ex vivo model of human diabetic keratopathy. Unlike rabbit eyes, the pig eye resembles the human eye anatomically, physiologically, and biomechanically²⁷, hence, being used for xenotransplantation into h.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
1.7 mL tubes	Axygen	AXYMCT175SP
Agarose	Thermo Scientific	R0491
Bromfenac (Prolensa) 0.09%
Camera	Canon	PowerShot A620
Cell Culture Dish	Corning	430165
D-glucose	Sigma	50-99-7
Dissecting microscope	Zeiss	Stemi 2000c
Forceps	FisherScientific	10-316A
Hemostat	FisherScientific	13-812-14
Ketorolac (Acular) 0.45%		Kresge Clinic
Kimwipes	Kimtech	34155
LL-37	Tocris	5213/1
Minimum essential medium (MEM)	Gibco	A1048901
Nepafenac (Ilevro) 0.1%
Penicillin-streptomycin	Gibco	15070063
Phosphate buffered saline	Sigma	P4417
Pig eyes	Bernthal Packing Inc.
Pipet tips	VWR	76322-164
Porcine corneas	Bernthal Packing , Inc. Frankenmuth, MI
Povidone-Iodine	Betadine
Q-Tips cotton swabs	Q-Tips
Razor blade	Electron Microscopy Sciences	72002-01
Razor blade holder	Stotz
Scalpel	Bard-Parker	377112
Scalpel Handle	Bard-Parker	#3
Scissors	FisherScientific	08-951-20
Silicon mold
Tissue culter enclosure	Labconco	5100000
Trephine	Acu.Punch	3813775
Water bath	VWR	1235