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Updated: Jun 25, 2026
Murine Corneal Transplantation: A Model to Study the Most Common Form of Solid Organ Transplantation
Published on: November 17, 2014
Transient postoperative vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-neutralisation improves graft survival in corneas
B O Bachmann1, E Luetjen-Drecoll, F Bock
1Department of Anatomy II, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Background:
High-risk keratoplasties are usually performed after an uninflamed and quiescent interval in corneas with partly regressed blood and lymphatic vessels. We analysed whether the inhibition of post-keratoplasty revascularisation in mice with partly regressed corneal vessels ("intermediate-risk") improves graft survival.
Methods:
Three interrupted stromal sutures (11-0) in corneas of Balb/c mice (6-8 weeks old) were placed for 6 weeks. Six months after suture removal, penetrating keratoplasty was performed with C57BL/6 donors. The treatment group received a vascular endothelial growth factor-A specific cytokine trap (VEGF Trap) intraperitoneally at days 0, 4, 7 and 14 after keratoplasty (25 mg/kg per mouse; controls received equal amounts of Fc protein). Pathological haemangiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis prior to as well as 3 days or 8 weeks after keratoplasty and graft survival were analysed.
Results:
Three days after keratoplasty corneal revascularisation was sufficiently reduced by VEGF Trap (haem-vascularised areas 42.7% reduction; lymph-vascularised areas 54.7% reduction). Survival proportions 8 weeks after keratoplasty were 36% in the treatment group compared with 9% in the control group (n = 11; p<0.05). At that time no differences in haemangiogenesis or lymphangiogenesis were observed between the two groups.
Conclusion:
Early transient postoperative induction of haemangiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis and reformation of regressed corneal blood and lymphatic vessels are important for transplant rejections after "intermediate-risk" corneal transplantation.
