Evaluation of succinylated collagen bandage lenses in corneal healing by the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-2 and MMP-9) in tear fluid.

AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of succinylated collagen bandage lenses (SCBL) in the healing of various corneal conditions.

METHODS

Clinical evaluation of SCBL was carried out in patients with corneal ulcer (CU), recurrent corneal erosions (RCE), dry eyes (DE) and corneal lesion (CL). In each patient, corneal healing was studied by subjective clinical assessment such as pain, redness, watering, discomfort, irritation, foreign body sensation, biochemical analysis of tear fluid (TF) for protein content, expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) by gelatin zymography (GZ) and Western blotting (WB). In both GZ and WB bands were quantified and analyzed by gel documentation analyzer.

RESULTS

Subjective clinical assessment of CU, RCE, DE and CL patients after treatment with SCBL showed significant reduction in the symptoms, patients felt comfortable with SCBL with no change in visual acuity, indicating complete transparency of SCBL. Protein content was very high on day 1 among all the patients, and it reduced gradually after treatment with SCBL signifying corneal healing. GZ of TF showed the expression of both MMP-2 and MMP-9 on day 3. There was significant reduction in MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression on day 7 in all cases, it decreased considerably on day 14 and was almost negligible on day 21 reflecting corneal healing with SCBL.

CONCLUSION

Our study indicated that SCBL significantly reduces symptoms of irritation and discomfort in the cornea. It maintains visual acuity, controls inflammation and watering in the eye reflecting corneal healing in all cases studied by us. SCBL represents a promising alternative to other bandage lenses in corneal healing.