Characterisation of the porcine eyeball as an in-vitro model for dry eye

Abstract

Purpose: To characterise the anatomical parameters of the porcine eye for potentially using it as a laboratory model of dry eye. Methods: Anterior chamber depth and angle, corneal curvature, shortest and longest diameter, endothelial cell density, and pachymetry were measured in sixty freshly enucleated porcine eyeballs. Results: Corneal steepest meridian was 7.85 ± 0.32 mm, corneal flattest meridian was 8.28 ± 0.32 mm, shortest corneal diameter was 12.69 ± 0.58 mm, longest corneal diameter was 14.88 ± 0.66 mm and central corneal ultrasonic pachymetry was 1009 ± 1μm. Anterior chamber angle was 28.83 ± 4.16°, anterior chamber depth was 1.77 ± 0.27 mm, and central corneal thickness measured using OCT was 1248 ± 144μm. Corneal endothelial cell density was 3250 ± 172 cells/mm2. Conclusions: Combining different clinical techniques produced a pool of reproducible data on the porcine eye anatomy, which can be used by researchers to assess the viability of using the porcine eye as an in-vitro/ex-vivo model for dry eye. Due to the similar morphology with the human eye, porcine eyeballs may represent a useful and cost effective model to individually study important key factors in the development of dry eye, such as environmental and mechanical stresses.