Ethyl pyruvate ameliorates endotoxin-induced corneal inflammation.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effect of ethyl pyruvate (EP) in a mouse model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced corneal inflammation.

Methods: LPS was injected intrastromally into the corneas of C57BL/6 mice followed by treatment with a solution of 2.5% EP in 0.

Optical coherence tomography as a rapid, accurate, noncontact method of visualizing the palisades of Vogt.

Purpose: This study explored the efficacy of optical coherence tomography (OCT) as a high-resolution, noncontact method for imaging the palisades of Vogt by correlating OCT and confocal microscopy images.

Methods: Human limbal rims were acquired and imaged with OCT and confocal microscopy. The area of the epithelial basement membrane in each of these sets was digitally reconstructed, and the models were compared.

FGF-2- and TGF-β1-induced downregulation of lumican and keratocan in activated corneal keratocytes by JNK signaling pathway.

Purpose: Downregulation of lumican and keratocan expression is an undesirable phenotypic change that occurs during corneal wound healing. The present study was intended to determine whether the activation of Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)-signaling pathway is involved in their downregulation in TGF-β1- and FGF-2-activated keratocytes.

Methods: Keratocytes, isolated from rabbit corneal stroma, and cultured in a serum-free medium, pretreated or not treated with JNK inhibitor (SP600125), were activated with FGF-2/heparin sulfate (HS) or TGF-β1 in the presence or absence of SP600125.

Initial in vitro investigation of the human immune response to corneal cells from genetically engineered pigs.

Purpose: To compare the in vitro human humoral and cellular immune responses to wild-type (WT) pig corneal endothelial cells (pCECs) with those to pig aortic endothelial cells (pAECs). These responses were further compared with CECs from genetically engineered pigs (α1,3-galactosyltransferase gene-knockout [GTKO] pigs and pigs expressing a human complement-regulatory protein [CD46]) and human donors.

Methods: The expression of Galα1,3Gal (Gal), swine leukocyte antigen (SLA) class I and class II on pCECs and pAECs, with or without activation by porcine IFN-γ, was tested by flow cytometry.

Responses of cultured human keratocytes and myofibroblasts to ethyl pyruvate: a microarray analysis of gene expression.

Purpose: Ethyl pyruvate (EP) has pharmacologic effects that remediate cellular stress. In the organ-cultured murine lens, EP ameliorates oxidative stress, and in a rat cataract model, it attenuates cataract formation. However, corneal responses to EP have not been elucidated.