Inhibition of intraocular proliferation by homoharringtonine. An experimental study

Antiproliferative drugs and human ocular fibroblasts: colorimetric vs. cell counting assays

Utilizing a rapid colorimetric assay that relates cell number to cytoplasmic hexosaminidase activity, we conducted drug-induced cytotoxicity experiments on human ocular fibroblasts cultured from Tenon's capsule specimens. The effects of two different agents--dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or mitomycin C--on the proliferation of human ocular fibroblasts were studied. Simultaneously the sensitivity of this technique was compared to electronic cell counting with a Coulter counter, a conventional means of quantifying proliferation. Known numbers of cells were exposed to varied concentrations of either DMSO or mitomycin C for 11 days. Cell attachment was quantified after 24 hours, and proliferation was quantified periodically thereafter over the remaining 10 days. Colorimetric data contained a similar or smaller amount of random error than corresponding Coulter values. Both assays identified statistically significant antiproliferative effects and inhibitory effects on cell attachment at higher drug doses; however, Coulter counting alone detected many additional significant effects among lower-dose DMSO and mitomycin treatment groups. Although the hexosaminidase assay displayed lower sensitivity than Coulter counting, it may still be useful to rapidly screen new compounds for strong antifibroblastic effects.

Proliferative vitreoretinopathy--is it anything more than wound healing at the wrong place?

Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is a reactive process of the ocular tissue after perforating trauma, retinal detachment, and surgical manipulations. Although several studies, most of them experimental, have focused on the detection of specific etiologic factors in the development of PVR, there is compelling evidence that PVR is nothing more than a physiologic tissue repair process with undesirable consequences for the retina. Important features of PVR involving the role of platelets, mononuclear phagocytes, and fibroblasts parallel the chain of events observed in tissue repair elsewhere in the body. Numerous experimental models for PVR, originally designed to find specific stimuli for the generation of intraocular traction membrane formation, have shown that the process of PVR is the common pathway of the eye's reaction to vitreoretinal trauma of any kind. Accordingly, vitreoretinal surgeons could learn a lot from the work of other disciplines, e.g. surgery and dermatology, on wound healing, and the factors known to modify wound healing elsewhere in the body should be taken into consideration. The well-established impairment of tissue repair processes caused by medical treatment with corticosteroids and cytotoxic agents suggests a combined medical approach to PVR as an adjunct to surgical treatment, using refined methods of application and dosage. Steroids and cytotoxic drugs will influence the course of PVR by suppressing macrophage recruitment and the initial inflammatory reaction as well as the proliferative phase of wound healing with traction retinal detachment, respectively.