3 Emergency salvage of time expired clinical corneas during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: Corneas for clinical use can be stored for a maximum of 28 days in organ culture medium after death. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 it became apparent that; a rare situation was arising in that clinical operations were being cancelled and that there would be a surplus of "clinical grade" corneas. Consequently, when the corneas reached the end of the storage period, if the tissue had appropriate consent, they were transferred to the Research Tissue Bank (RTB).

28 Validation of a closed system for dispensing serum eye drops.

Introduction: NHS Blood and Transplant Tissue and Eye Services (TES) offer a serum eyedrop (SE) service to patients suffering from severe ocular surface disease. SE are prepared from serum collected at blood donation sessions; the serum is diluted 1:1 with physiological saline. Formerly, 3ml aliquots of diluted serum were aliquoted into glass bottles in a Grade B clean room.

Development of a decellularised dermis.

The purpose of this investigation was to develop a decellularised human dermis suitable for allografting. Samples of human skin were obtained from deceased donors and taken through a series of steps to remove all cellular material. The steps were: chemical removal of the epidermis, disinfection, lysing of cells in hypotonic buffer, a detergent treatment and a nuclease buffer to remove residual nuclear material.

Morphometric effects of long-term exposure to latanoprost.

Purpose: To investigate the morphological and melanin granule changes in irides after variable-term exposure to latanoprost, where the latanoprost-induced iris darkening (LIID) side effect has been identified and photographically recorded.

Design: Experimental study.

Participants: Fifteen LIID cases and 15 untreated controls.

Melanin in the trabecular meshwork is associated with age, POAG but not Latanoprost treatment. A masked morphometric study.

We wished to conduct a light and electron microscopic investigation of pigmentation within the trabecular meshwork of normals and primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) patients. In particular we wished to get a precise determination of whether there was a relationship between pigmentation and age. In addition we wanted to know if there was a difference between normals and POAGs and whether trabecular meshwork hyperpigmentation was associated with topical latanoprost medication.

Latanoprost-induced iris darkening: a morphometric study of human peripheral iridectomies.

Purpose: This microscopic study was undertaken to compare the melanocytes of peripheral iridectomy specimens from two eyes that had latanoprost-induced iris darkening (LIID) with iridectomies taken from the fellow untreated eyes.

Methods: The two patients in this study were the ones who underwent LIID in the latanoprost treated eye from a series of 17 patients requiring bilateral trabeculectomy. The first trabeculectomy procedure provided a control peripheral iridectomy for each patient, whereas the second eye was treated with once daily 50 microg ml(-1) latanoprost drops for 6 months.

Direct comparison of the migration of three cell types involved in epiretinal membrane formation.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to develop an accurate and sensitive migration assay to compare the migratory capabilities of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, retinal glial (RG) cells, and fibroblasts (the cell types crucial in epiretinal membrane [ERM] formation) under identical microenvironmental conditions and thus to identify potential target areas in ERM management.

Methods: Cultured bovine RPE and RG cells and scleral fibroblasts (SFs) in both single and mixed cell type populations were induced to migrate in modified 48-well Boyden chambers. The labels used to distinguish between the cell types were latex microspheres and carmine particles.