An experimental study of rabbit conjunctival epithelial toxicity using co-treatment with Mitomycin-C and a histone deacetylase inhibitor

This study was conducted to evaluate cytotoxicity due to co-treatment with low-dose Mitomycin-C (MMC) and the histone deacetylase inhibitor, suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) for glaucoma filtration surgery. In this study, the effect of co-treatment with MMC and SAHA to induce apoptosis in cultured conjunctival epithelial cells (CEs) in rabbit was investigated. The cytotoxic potential following co-treatment with MMC and SAHA in CEs via assay for reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was also examined. Co-treatment with MMC and SAHA did not induce apoptosis in CEs. In addition, co-treatment with MMC and SAHA caused no significant alteration of ROS and LDH levels in CEs. This study therefore shows that low-dose MMC could still be used as an antimetabolite in co-treatment with SAHA to effectively inhibit fibrosis of Tenon’s capsule fibroblasts (TCFs) following glaucoma filtration surgery, while minimizing cytotoxicity in CEs.