Müller A., Zhang E. P., Hoffmann F.

Universitätsklinikum Benjamin Franklin der FU Berlin, Augenklinik, Berlin

Objective: To determine the influence of Dexamethasone treatment on F4/80+ macrophages and Langerhans cells and the time of graft survival of MHC- and minor HC- disparate grafts.
Methods: Using EDTA prepared flatmounts of the ocular surface and tangential frozen sections of the remaining corneal stroma from untreated eyes of normal mice (n=6) and from eyes treated with 7 days of Dexamethasone (n=6) were immunohistologically examined for content of F4/80+ cells. Furthermore corneas from untreated C₃H mice (n=8) were grafted into untreated recipient BALB/c mice and corneas of C₃H mice with 7 days Spersadex® eye drops treatment (n=8) were grafted into BALB/c mice with the same treament.
Results: In the flatemounts of the ocular surface 116±25 F4/80 positive cells in the untreated controlgroup were counted, 2±0.7 in the Dexamethasone pretreated group and 35±17 in their partnereyes (p<0.01). The number of F4/80+ cells in the corneal stroma remained unchanged. The grafts of untreated control mice survived 16±4 days, the treated grafts 16±3 days.
Conclusions: Most investigators assume that normal murine corneas contain no APC's such as macrophages and Langerhans cells. For the first time we were able to detect APC's in flatmounts of the ocular surface and frozen sections of corneal stroma. Our investigations show that, in contrast to the ocular surface, the number of F4/80+ cells in the corneal stroma is not influenced by Dexamethasone treatment. A transplantation of corneas containing donor- derived APC's promotes acute rejection (direct pathway of allrecognition). Thus, Dexamethasone treatment did not prolongate the time of allograft survival.

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