| Summary: | A new in vitro human corneal epithelial model (QobuR) obtained from normal limbal tissue has been developed
to study ocular irritancy of different ophthalmic compounded drugs. Phenotypical characterization and transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) of QobuR revealed essential similarities compared with a native human
cornea, displaying functional markers and TEER values near 1500 Ωcm2 at day 7th of cellular differentiation.
Using this model, ocular irritancy and barrier integrity alterations were evaluated using MTT reaction and
variations in TEER. We found that some of the Non-Irritant products evaluated still damage the corneal epithelial
integrity and current protocols for ocular irritancy should therefore include a barrier integrity evaluation.
Moreover, in order to comprehensively evaluate corneal permeability of the active ingredients, we propose the
use of QobuR as an all-in-one alternative method for evaluating ocular irritancy, barrier disruptions and permeability rates of topically applied ocular drugs to improve current in vitro drug testing procedures.
|
|---|