Inhibitory Effects of Imatinib Mesylate on Transdifferentiation of Lens Epithelial Cells into Fibroblast.

Park, Tea Sung; Tea, Jun Seok; Park, Seh Min; Oh, Jung Hyub

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Ophthalmological Society 2005;46(2):257-270.
Published online February 28, 2005.

Inhibitory Effects of Imatinib Mesylate on Transdifferentiation of Lens Epithelial Cells into Fibroblast.

Tea Sung Park, Jun Seok Tea, Seh Min Park, Jung Hyub Oh

¹Department of Ophthalmology, Inha University, College of Medicine, Inchon, Korea. jhoh9707@hanmail.net
²Dr. Tea's Eye Clinic, Anyang, Korea.
³Incheon Medical Center, Inchon, Korea.

이마티니브 메실레이트에 의한 수정체상피세포의 섬유아세포로의 전환분화억제효과

박태성¹,태준석²,박세민³,오중협¹

Department of Ophthalmology, Inha University, College of Medicine¹, Inchon, Korea Dr. Tea`s Eye Clinic, Anyang, Korea², Incheon Medical Center³, Inchon, Korea

Correspondence: Tea Sung Park, M.D.¹

Abstract

PURPOSE
To investigate whether Imatinib mesylate (IM) could inhibit the transdifferentiation of the lens epithelial cells (LECs) into fibroblasts using the capsular bag model. METHODS: In the capsular bag model, LECs were cultured by exposure to IM at various concentrations for 3 min. The effect of IM was analysed by observing the covering area, numbers of alpha-SMA positive cell, and BrdU incorporated proliferating cells. The same analysis was performed in the culture of LECs with TGF-beta. RESULTS: The covering area was significantly decreased by the treatment of 30 micro M IM, and the positive cells for alpha-SMA and BrdU were also decreased by IM treatment in a dose dependent manner. In addition, increasing TGF-beta concentration accelerated transdifferentiation, but suppressed the acceleration of the transdifferentiation induced by TGF-beta. CONCLUSIONS: In the capsular bag model, IM effectively inhibited not only the transdifferentiation of LECs into fibroblasts but also the TGF-beta induced acceleration of the transdifferentiation.

Key Words: alpha-Smooth muscle actin;Capsular bag model;Fibroblast;Imatinib mesylate;Transdifferentiation