Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of cross-linking (CXL) on viability, apoptosis, proliferation, activation, and cytokine secretion of human keratoconus (KC) keratocytes, in vitro.
Methods: Primary KC keratocytes were cultured in DMEM/Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FCS and underwent UVA illumination (370 nm, 2 J/cm(2)) during exposure to 0.1% riboflavin and 20% Dextran in PBS. Twenty-four hours after CXL, viability was assessed using Alamar blue assay; apoptosis using APO-DIRECT Kit; proliferation using ELISA-BrdU kit; and CD34 and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) expression using flow cytometry. Five and 24 hours after CXL, FGFb, HGF, TGFβ1, VEGF, KGF, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 secretion was measured using enzyme-linked-immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA).
Results: Following CXL, cell viability and proliferation decreased (P < 0.05; P = 0.009), the percentage of apoptotic keratocytes increased (P < 0.05) significantly, and CD34 and α-SMA expression remained unchanged (P > 0.06). Five hours after CXL, FGFb secretion increased significantly (P = 0.037); however no other cytokine secretion differed significantly from controls after 5 or 24 hours (P > 0.12).
Conclusions: Cross-linking decreases viability, triggers apoptosis, and inhibits proliferation, without an impact on multipotent hematopoietic stem cell transformation and myofibroblastic transformation of KC keratocytes. CXL triggers FGFb secretion of KC keratocytes transiently (5 hours), normalizing after 24 hours.