Cornea - ARVO

ARVO 2013 Annual Meeting Abstracts by Scientific Section/Group - Corneaneovascularization and lymphangiogenesis. Mutant eyes exhibitabnormal thickness in the peripheral-to-central corneal stroma andlimbus (Figure 1). Interestingly, some mutant corneas havehyperplastic stroma with increased cell density. Mutant pupils aredisplaced from the normal central position. The anterior chamber isnormally formed in NC-Foxc2-/- mice, but not in NC-Foxc1-/-;Foxc2-/- mice. The severity of the ocular phenotype is dependent onthe cumulative “dose” of functional Foxc1 and Foxc2 genes andabnormalities are more extensive in NC-Foxc1-/-; Foxc2-/-. In fact,in NC-Foxc1-/-; Foxc2-/- mice the cornea is not present at all (Figure1). In the alkali-burn model, corneas of adult NC-Foxc2+/- mice andNC-Foxc1+/-; Foxc2+/- mice have increased cornealneovascularization and lymphangiogenesis compared with those ofcontrol mice (Figure 2).Conclusions: Taken together, these data suggest that the overlappingfunction of Foxc1 and Foxc2 in the neural crest plays an importantrole in maintaining corneal avascularity and development of theanterior eye segment.Program Number: 2099 Poster Board Number: D0238Presentation Time: 11:00 AM - 12:45 PMTopical Infliximab as an inhibitor of corneal hemangiogenesisand lymphangiogenesisGiulio Ferrari, Fabio Bignami, Chiara Giacomini, Paolo Rama.Ophthalmology -Cornea Unit-Eye Repair, San Raffaele ScientificInstitute, Milan, Italy.Purpose: To test whether topical application of the anti-TNF alphaantibody Infliximab can reduce lymphangiogenesis and/orhemangiogenesis in an alkali burn mouse model of cornealneovascularization.Methods: Eighteen C57BL/6 mice were induced alkali burn modelof the right cornea. Animals were then divided in two groups: group1 received topical Infliximab 10mg/ml six times a day (10ul), group 2received regular saline. After two weeks, animals were sacrificed,corneas stained for CD31 and LYVE1 to identify hemangiogenesisand lymphangiogenesis. Finally, the corneas were whole mountedand imaged. Neovascularization was calculated as neovascular area,i.e. the area of the cornea covered by vessels normalized for the totalarea of the cornea.Results: Following topical application of Infliximabhemangiogenesis decreased from 0.81±0.12 to 0.6±0.24 (26%reduction, P