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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Ophthalmology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1514073
This article is part of the Research Topic Spotlight on the Pharmacological Treatment for Myopia View all articles
Second-Harmonic Generation Microscopy of Murine Scleral Remodeling by Collagenase and Reparative Collagen Mimetic Peptides
Provisionally accepted
Daniel E. Savage 1*
Jiaxi Zhou 2
James Germann 2
Robert O. Baratta MD 3 Brian J. Del Buono 3
Eric Schlumpf 3
Susana Marcos 2- 1 John A. Moran Eye Center, College of Health, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
- 2 Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, United States
- 3 Stuart Therapeutics Inc, Stuart, Florida, United States
Introduction: Myopia, resulting from an excessive axial elongation of the eye, is increasing worldwide at alarming rates. This investigation is a pilot study to determine if a novel collagen mimetic peptide (CMP) has a reparative function for scleral collagen organization after collagenase digestion, a cause for scleral thinning and increased creep rates, as this may have application in the pharmacologic treatment of myopia.Methods: Fresh, ex vivo, scleral tissue samples from 3 albino Sprague-Dawley rats (5 eyes) and from 8 C57/Black mice (8 eyes) underwent sequential collagenase digestion and treatment with a CMP solution. Full-thickness second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy was performed over a 200 μm x 200 μm area through depth on each of the untreated samples (either scleral tissue samples or full intact eyes), and again after each sequential treatment. The organization of the collagen fibers at each tissue depth was quantified using a previously validated order coefficient (OC). This measure of collagen organization was then used to compare between the untreated, collagenase-digested, and CMP-treated tissue.Results: SHG microscopy of the untreated scleral tissue showed a high degree of organization.Collagenase treatment resulted in a subjective straightening of the collagen fibers and a widening of the inter-fiber spacing with a statistically significant reduction of the OC (p < 0.05). CMP treatment of digested sclera resulted in a collagen organization that was more similar (i.e., not significantly different) from untreated tissue at depths up to 60 μm (p < 0.05).
Keywords: Myopia, Collagen, Sclera, Collagen mimetic peptides, Second-Harmonic Generation Frontiers in Medicine, Ophthalmology Section, Spotlight on the Pharmacological Treatment for Myopia
Received: 19 Oct 2024; Accepted: 17 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Savage, Zhou, Germann, Baratta MD, Del Buono, Schlumpf and Marcos. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Daniel E. Savage, John A. Moran Eye Center, College of Health, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 84132, Utah, United States
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