Histologic and spectroscopic study of pluripotent stem cells after implanting in ocular traumatic injuries in a murine model (Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations)

IntroductionThe ocular trauma is defined as a trauma caused by blunt or penetrating mechanisms on the eyeball and its peripheral structures, causing damage with different degrees of affectation with temporary or permanent visual function compromise. The ocular trauma is a major cause of preventable blindness worldwide; it constitutes the 7% of all corporal injury, and 10-15% of all eye diseases. The regenerative medicine research has opened the possibility to use stem cells as a source of cell replacement; so that experimental studies on embryonic stem cells and bone marrow stem cells have been carried out. In this study we analyzed the histopathological and spectroscopic changes in ocular tissue with trauma, treated with mouse pluripotent stem cells. Methods: Firstly mouse embryonic stem cells were seeded; subsequently the obtained cells were implanted in a murine model of scleral and retinal damage at the first, second and fourth week post-trauma. At week 12 post-trauma, the eyes were enucleated for histopathologic study (inflammatory response and histological integrity) and spectroscopic analysis by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in the attenuated total reflection configuration. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA. Results: Histopathological results showed that the experimental groups treated with stem cells presented a decrease in the inflammatory response, and the histological integrity was restored, which contrasted with the experimental group treated with saline solution. Moreover, in the spectroscopic analysis, characteristic bands of biological samples were observed in all tissues, highlighting in healthy tissues the presence of C = O bond at 1745 cm-1 that were not observed in the injured and treated tissues. Also the absorption spectrum of the tissues treated with embryonic stem cells, showed bands which intensity was high at around 1080-1070 cm-1. It has been reported that these bands are characteristic of pluripotent stem cells. Conclusions: The implant of embryonic stem cells could be a useful therapeutic treatment after traumatic eye injuries or many other eye diseases, to reduce the inflammatory response and restore histological integrity. Furthermore, the spectroscopic technique could be used as a complementary technique for detecting stem cell incorporation into various tissues.