Expression Of MMP-3 In Conjunctival Tenon Capsule With Long-term Antiglaucoma Drops

Background and purpose:So far, Trabeculectomy is the most common surgical procedure to treat glaucoma, many studies are searching the causes of surgical failure. In clinical, they found the surgical outcome is more easily to be failed in patients with longterm previous topical anti-glaucoma therapy, and fibroblast cells are the major factors for wound healing. The purpose of this study is to investigate the histopathology changes of conjunctival tissue.and the expression of MMP-3 in conjunctival Tenon capsule with longterm anti-glaucoma eye-drops .Methods:20 Conjunctival speciments with longtern anti-glaucoma eye drop and 20 without longtern anti-glaucoma eye drop were took from trabeculectomy procedure, HE and Masson-stained slides were examined by light microscopy, and the expression of matrix metalloproteinase(MMP-3)in conjunctival tissues were examined by immunohistochemistry.Results:There are no age and sex differences in two groups. In long-term eye drops group(group A), time of administration is 1-3 years;In short-term eye drops group(group B, time of administration is 7-90 days. In group A,two kinds of anti-glaucoma eye drops were used in 15 cases and three kinds of antiglaucoma eye drops were used in 5 cases before trabeculectomy. There 20 cses in group B. HE and Masson-stain showed that conjunctival epithelium with long-term antiglaucoma eye drops is irregular with collagens, vessels proliferation, and inflammatory cell infiltration in the superficial substantia propria layer. The MMP-3 positive staining is brown in cytoplasm. MMP-3 positive expression was found in 17 cases cases (85%), and negative in 3 cases (15%) in group A . Whereas,MMP-3positive expression was found in 6(30%),and negative 14(70%) in group B (P=0.001). There are significant diference between two groups,(P<0.01).Conclusion:The increased expression of antibodies against MMP-3 with long term Anti-glaucoma drops in conjunctival Tenon capsule fibroblast cells indicates that long term Anti-glaucoma drops may increase the changes of conjunctive tissue and scar formation after anti-glaucoma surgery.