What Is Corneal Fibrosis?

Corneal fibrosis is the third most common cause of blindness after cataracts and glaucoma, and trauma or injury to the cornea can lead to regeneration or fibrosis, depending on a variety of factors including age, sex, medical and eye health, and etiology. Corneal clouding is a fibrotic eye disorder of the anterior segment and may be due to trauma (injury, surgery, and chemicals), infection (viruses, bacteria, and fungi), inflammation (pterygium and pterygium), or acquired genetic disease ( genetic malnutrition). Transdifferentiation of keratocytes into myofibroblasts is the main cause of corneal fibrosis. Current studies of corneal fibrosis typically use small experimental animal species such as rodents and rabbits. Although in vivo studies overcome in vitro limitations by representing native corneal wound healing experiments, the corneas of rats, rabbits, and mice are significantly different from humans in terms of thickness and diameter, and certain limitations still exist. Therefore, the development of effective and successful animal models for the discovery of strategies for corneal fibrosis treatment remains a major goal for ophthalmic pharmacologists.

Fig. 1. Representative histological images of normal (A-D) and alkali-burned corneas (E-H). (Gronkiewicz KM, et al., 2016)

Service Overview

In vivo/in vitro study designs have been used to investigate different therapeutic strategies to prevent corneal fibrosis. As a full-service ocular disease solution provider, Ace Therapeutics is pleased to offer a canine corneal fibrosis model for in vivo research. Compared with traditional small experimental animals, our canine corneal fibrosis model is an ideal animal model to study the molecular mechanism mediating corneal fibrosis and to test the effectiveness and safety of corneal scarring and vision restoration therapy, because it has corneal anatomy and physiological characteristics similar to humans.

Explore Ace Therapeutics' Canine Models of Corneal Fibrosis

Our researchers create a canine corneal fibrosis model by inflicting axial corneal alkali burns on canines with topical 1 N NaOH.

It is worth mentioning that our scientists also select the clinically relevant compound octyl hydroxamic acid (SAHA) to test its ability to inhibit corneal fibrosis in dogs. In addition, our ophthalmic pharmacologists devise programmed protocols to help you test new therapeutic strategies to inhibit canine corneal fibrosis.

Available Support Services

To characterize the development of canine corneal fibrosis under pathological conditions, our investigators monitor endpoints using the following tools and methods, including but not limited to:

• Fantes grading scale.
• Optical coherence tomography (OCT).
• Corneal histopathology.
• Immunohistochemistry (IHC).
• Transmission electron microscopy (TEM).

Ace Therapeutics aims to provide global customers with a powerful experimental tool to explore novel therapies aimed at treating corneal fibrosis. If you are interested in our services or need more detailed information, please feel free to contact us. Our experienced scientists are ready to help you!

References

1. Gronkiewicz KM, Giuliano EA, Kuroki K, et al. Development of a novel in vivo corneal fibrosis model in the dog. Exp Eye Res. 2016, 143:75-88.
2. Berkowski WM, Gibson DJ, Seo S, et al. Assessment of Topical Therapies for Improving the Optical Clarity Following Stromal Wounding in a Novel Ex Vivo Canine Cornea Model. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2018, 59(13):5509-5521.

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