{
  "abstract": "Purpose In Germany, organ culture of donor corneas is restricted to a maximum of 34 days, including 6 days of deswelling. This contributes to the supply gap regarding the availability of donor corneas prior to transplantation. The shortage can delay surgeries and lead to prolonged patient suffering or irreversible vision loss. Extending the preservation time of corneas can help eye banks meet rising demand, improving patient outcomes and ensuring more people receive necessary treatments.Methods In this first part of our study, 21 human donor corneas not suitable for transplantation, were stored under standard eye bank conditions in culture medium without dextran. 11 corneas were stored for 42 days, with evaluations at 28, 35, and 42 days. Another 10 corneas were stored for 77 days, evaluated at both 28 and 77 days. Quantitative and qualitative assessments of the central endothelial area (C) were performed using phase-contrast microscopy. The parameters evaluated included endothelial cell density (C-ECD), polymegethism (C-POL), pleomorphism (C-PLE), granulation (C-GRA), vacuolization (C-VAC), segmentation of cell membranes (C-SEG), folds of Descemet’s membrane (C-DF), Trypan blue-positive cells (C-TBPC) and endothelial cell-free areas (C-ECFA).Results C-ECD was 2629 ± 402 cells/mm² at 28 days, 2526 ± 396 cells/mm² at 35 days, 2364 ± 379 cells/mm² at 42 days, and 2045 ± 281 cells/mm² at 77 days. Relative cell loss was 6.10% ± 5.37 between 28 and 35 days, 9.84% ± 7.06 between 28 and 42 days, and 14.19% ± 7.22 between 28 and 77 days. No significant differences were observed between the groups in the morphological criteria (C-POL, C-PLE, C-GRA, C-VAC, C-SEG, C-DF, C-TBPC, C-ECFA).Conclusion The results agree with previous studies on prolonged organ culture, focusing on cell counts and metabolic status of the tissue. The second part of this study will examine corneal endothelial changes at the molecular level, through the analysis of gene expression especially regarding marker genes that have an influence on corneal endothelial integrity. The corneal Descemet endothelium lamella of each cornea was stripped at the end of the respective storage period, snap-frozen and stored at -80°C for future analysis. However, we can already conclude that extending the preservation period of human donor corneas beyond the standard 28 days is feasible.Acknowledgements Ethical approval 067/05 and 066/05",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Ophthalmology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany",
        "Cornea Bank Aachen, Department of Ophthalmology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany"
      ],
      "name": "Nilay Türkeri"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Ophthalmology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany",
        "Cornea Bank Aachen, Department of Ophthalmology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany"
      ],
      "name": "Sabine Salla"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Ophthalmology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany",
        "Cornea Bank Aachen, Department of Ophthalmology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany"
      ],
      "name": "Jonathan Felix Klett"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Ophthalmology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany"
      ],
      "name": "Matthias Fuest"
    }
  ],
  "title": "P.10. Human donor corneas during extended organ culture – first data on morphological changes and endothelial cell counts",
  "uid": "56b46453-e6c1-524e-a92f-1eaefeb95603"
}