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Amniotic membrane transplant improves keratitis locally in animal study
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Ulcerating herpetic keratitis improved markedly after amniotic membrane transplantation in an animal study. The effects were thought by researchers to be local, not systemic.
A. Heiligenhaus and colleagues at the University Eye Clinic in Essen, Germany, infected the corneas of mice with herpes simplex virus-1. The mice with ulcerating keratitis on day 14 were divided into four groups, treated with either amniotic membrane transplant or tarsorrhaphy, either alone or in different combinations between eyes.
Ulceration and stromal inflammation were profoundly improved in the eyes treated with amniotic membrane transplant over those treated with tarsorrhaphy. The corneas of the AMT-treated mice had fewer inflammatory cells, CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ cells than the control mice.
Having tarsorrhaphy or AMT in the fellow eye had no influence on the course of the ulceration, suggesting a local rather than systemic effect of AMT.
The study is published in Der Ophthalmologe.