PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate tumor control efficacy of paclitaxel in the treatment of retinal tumors harbored by the LH beta-Tag murine transgenic model of retinoblastoma. METHODS LH beta-Tag-positive mice (n = 5) 10 weeks of age received two 20-microL subconjunctival injections delivered with a 72-hour interval to right eyes only. Paclitaxel was dissolved in 100% dime...

AIMS To establish a simple model of conjunctival wound healing in the mouse eye. METHODS 4 week old BABL/c mouse eyes were studied over a 14 day period. Surgical procedure under general anaesthesia involved a blunt dissection of the conjunctiva performed by injection of 25 microliters of PBS via a 27 gauge needle into one eye, while the contralateral eye was used as control. Mice were assesse...

PURPOSE The aim of this study is to investigate whether CS-g-MMCs conjugate (CSM) could be a new agent to prevent the post-operative fibrosis in a rabbit model of experimental glaucoma filtration surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS In a randomized, controlled, masked-observer study, 40 New Zealand White rabbits underwent trabeculectomy in the right eyes and randomly received subconjunctival inject...

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is a major complication of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Dry eye disease is the prominent ocular sequel of cGVHD and is caused by excessive inflammation and fibrosis in the lacrimal glands. Heavy chain-Hyaluronan/Pentraxin 3 (HC-HA/PTX3) is a complex purified from human amniotic membrane (AM) and known to exert anti-inflammatory and anti-scar...

PURPOSE Prospero homeobox 1 (Prox1) siRNA is a small interfering RNA that is designed to specifically bind Prox1 mRNA. We determined whether Prox1 siRNA inhibits lymphangiogenesis and hemangiogenesis after acute corneal inflammation. METHODS Three Prox1 siRNAs were synthesized and investigated for their effects on Prox1 mRNA expression and tube formation in human dermal lymphatic endothelial ...

Itching of ocular allergy is alleviated but not completely relieved by H(1) histamine receptor antagonists, suggesting that histamine is not the sole itch mediator in ocular allergy. We investigated whether leukotriene B(4) (LTB(4)), a mediator of cutaneous itch, is involved in the itch of ocular allergy in mice. Mice were immunized by the repeated subcutaneous injections of ragweed pollen and ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Tumour-necrosis-factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) plays a role in the development of allergic asthma. The study aimed to determine whether TRAIL also participates in the development of experimental allergic conjunctivitis (EC), another allergic disease model. METHODS EC was induced in BALB/c mice by active immunisation with ragweed (RW) followed by RW challenge....

Staphylococcus aureus is an important cause of infectious disease of the eye and hypersensitivity lesions of the cornea including phlyctenules and catarrhal infiltrates. Because little is known about ocular immunity to S. aureus, we measured antibody levels to ribitol teichoic acid, the major antigenic determinant of S. aureus, in rabbit serum and tears using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assa...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the use of the subconjunctival injection of ranibizumab (Lucentis) on angiogenesis in the rabbit cornea. Corneas of 12 New Zealand Rabbits were cauterized with silver nitrate crystal. Animals were divided in two groups: control group (GC) that received 0.02 ml of 0.9% saline solution; group ranibizumab (GR) that received 0.5 mg of ranibiz...