Antifibrotic Effects of Limbal Mesenchymal Stem Cells-Conditioned Media (LMSCs-CM) on Human Tenon’s Fibroblasts (HTFs) in Glaucomatous Eyes: Comparison with Mitomycin C

Human tenon‘s fibroblasts (HTFs) is the key effector of bleb fibrosis after trabeculectomy. Excessive fibroblast proliferation and differentiation into myofibroblast contribute to disturbance of extracellular matrix remodeling, result in irreversible fibrosis. In this study we investigated the effect of LMSCs-CM on cell viability, cell migration, cell contractility, collagen synthesis and degradation in HTFs. HTFs from glaucomatous eye were divided into 3 groups consist of FBS 2% control group, MMC, and LMSCs-CM for 7 days. The cell viability was determined by MTT-assay while collagen synthesis and degradation were determined by Sirius red binding assay. Cell migration was determined by in vitro scratch assay and cell contractility was analyzed by fibroblast populated-collagen gel assay. The differences of cell viability, cell contractility, collagen synthesis and degradation among groups were analyzed using Oneway ANOVA or Kruskal Wallis test followed by post-hoc test with 95% confidence interval (p<0.05). The results showed that LMSCs-CM inhibited collagen synthesis and induced collagen degradation in HTFS. LMSCs-CM inhibit cell contraction, while maintain cell viability in HTFs. However, MMC provides better antifibrotic effect on HTFs. In conclusion, LMSCs-CM might have antifibrotic effect on HTFs