Figure 6.
TGF-β MSCs Prolong Corneal Allograft Survival
(A) Timeline of events and injection strategy used to assess the ability of MSCs with or without TGF-β pre-activation to prolong corneal allograft survival. Female BALB/c mice served as recipients for female C57BL/6 donor corneas. 1 × 106 untreated or TGF-β MSCs were injected intravenously on post-operative day (POD) 1 and POD 7. Mice were observed every 2–3 days. (B) Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis of allogeneic transplant controls (black line) (n = 12), corneal allograft + MSCs (dashed green line) (n = 14), and corneal allograft + TGF-β MSCs (dashed blue line) (n = 13). ∗p = 0.05, ∗∗p = 0.01, by log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. (C and D) Opacity (C) and neovascularization (D) scores up to POD 40 (n = 12–14 with numbers per treatment group the same as in B). (E) Opacity and neovascularization scores were compared between the three groups at POD 19 (corresponding to the average time point of rejection in allogeneic transplant controls) (n = 12–14 with numbers per treatment group the same as in B). (F) Representative light microscope images of corneal transplants taken at multiple time points during the period of observation. Error bars show mean ± SD. ∗p < 0.05, ∗∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001, by one-way ANOVA, Tukey’s post hoc test (n = 12–14).