Lithium chloride promotes diabetic corneal epithelial wound healing by activating the Wnt/β‑catenin signaling pathway.

Exp Ther Med

Department of Ophthalmology, Affiliated Renhe Hospital of China Three Gorges University, Second Clinical Medical College of China, Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei 443000, P.R. China.

Published: August 2023

Corneal epithelial abnormality is a common manifestation of diabetic keratopathy and leads to delayed epithelial wound healing. The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway participates in the development, differentiation and stratification of corneal epithelial cells. The present study compared the expression of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway related factors, including Wnt7a, β-catenin, cyclin D1 and phosphorylated (p-) glycogen synthase kinase 3 β (Gsk3b) between normal and diabetic mouse corneas, by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR, western blotting and immunofluorescence staining. It was found that the expression of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway related factors was downregulated in diabetic corneas. Upon corneal epithelium scraping, the wound healing rate was significantly increased in diabetic mice after topical treatment with lithium chloride. After further investigation, significantly upregulated levels of Wnt7a, β-catenin, cyclin D1 and p-Gsk3b were found in the diabetic group 24 h after treatment, accompanied by β-catenin nuclear translocation observed by immunofluorescence staining. These results suggest that active Wnt/β-catenin pathway can promote diabetic corneal epithelial wound healing.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10320653PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3892/etm.2023.12072DOI Listing

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