视网膜干细胞移植对青光眼视网膜神经节细胞的保护

Protective effect of retinal stem cell transplantation on retinal ganglion cells in glaucoma

BACKGROUND:Stem cell transplantation is a new method for blinding eye disease. But there is a lack of research about the protective effect of retinal stem cell transplantation on retinal ganglion cells in glaucoma. OBJECTIVE:To explore the protective effect of retinal stem cell transplantation on retinal ganglion cells of rats with glaucoma. METHODS:Forty-five Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups (n=15 per group) including control, model and retinal stem cell transplantation groups. Rat models of glaucoma were prepared in the latter two groups, and at 7 days after modeling, rats in the three groups were given intravitreal injection of 1 mL retinal stem cells (5x10⁶ cells), the same amount of PBS, and no treatment, respectively. Subsequently, relative indicators were detected at 2 weeks after transplantation. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The expressions of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and insulin-like growth factor I protein as well as the number of retinal ganglion cells were the highest in the control group, followed by the retinal stem cell transplantation group model group, and the lowest in the model group (P < 0.05). The number of apoptotic retinal ganglion cells in model group was significantly higher than that of control group (P < 0.05), and which in the retinal stem cell transplantation group was significantly lower than that in the model group (P < 0.05), but higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05). These results suggest that retinal stem cell transplantation for rat glaucoma can exert a protective effect on retinal ganglion cells.