Lumican expression in chronic degenerative cornea diseases

The pattern of lumican expression in corneal explants of patients with chronic dystrophic cornea diseases and the changes in its expression after 1 % sodium hyaluronate expression are established. The prospective study included 37 patients with chronic dystrophic diseases of the cornea: keratopathies in the outcome of keratitis (20 cases) and endothelial-epithelial dystrophy (17 cases). The patients were divided into 2 groups. The first group in the preoperative period received the injections of 1 % low molecular weight sodium hyaluronate, the second group did not receive additional treatment. All patients included in the study underwent penetrating keratoplasty. The immunohistochemical study of corneal explants was performed using primary monoclonal antibodies to lumican with subsequent morphometric evaluation of the preparations. The proportion of pixels with high and moderate intensity and the index of expression intensity in immunopositive regions were calculated. In the group of patients with aggressive keratitis, the intensity of lumican expression both in the epithelium and in the corneal stroma was statistically significantly higher than in the control group and decreased with the use of 1 % low molecular weight sodium hyaluronate. After the leukoma formation, the expression of lumican both in the epithelium and in the corneal stroma was comparable to that in the control group with higher parameters of epithelial expression after sodium hyaluronate administration. In the groups of endothelial-epithelial dystrophy, an increase in the intensity of expression was noted after sodium hyaluronate injections. The noted increase in the epithelial expression of lumican against the background of pronounced alteration is accompanied by its gradual decrease as the regeneration is completed. An important factor is its normal content in the corneal stroma, since both a sharp increase and low expression parameters are accompanied by a decrease in corneal transparency.