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The effects of sperminated pullulans on cornea permeability to puerarin and the toxicity
Nannan Yu1, Guo Dong, Hongyan Ge
1Eye Hospital, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China.
Purpose:
To investigate the varied effects of sperminated pullulans (SP) with different amino residues on cornea permeability and its local toxicity.
Methods:
Three groups of rabbits were used: control, low-amino residue content SP (SP-L), and high-amino residue content SP (SP-H). The in vitro and in vivo spreading assays were combined with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to measure the concentration of puerarin in the external medium or aqueous humor when 0% SP, 0.2% SP-L, and 0.2% SP-H were included. The toxicity of SP was determined by corneal hydration values, Draize score, aqueous humor protein concentration, corneal endothelial evaluation, as well as light microscopy and electron microscopy.
Results:
The application of 0.2% SP-L and 0.2% SP-H to the cornea in vitro increased puerarin apparent permeability coefficient by 1.96-fold (P<0.05) and 2.95-fold (P<0.01), respectively. SP-H showed stronger effect than SP-L (P<0.05). For the in vivo assay, those were 1.81-fold (P<0.05) and 3.71-fold (P<0.01), respectively. With the SP application, the corneal hydration values were <83% and Draize scores were <4, with no apparent changes in histological observations.
Conclusion:
SP is one potential adjuvant promoting puerarin permeability to the cornea, and the high-content amino residue SP showed stronger effect, without ocular toxicity.
