To investigate the effect of ROCK inhibitor Y27632 on the human corneal endothelial cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo .

Using corneal endothelial cells isolated and cultured from human donor cornea, we compared the effect of Y27632 (10 µM) on the proliferation in vitro by flow cytometry analysis. For the evaluation of the effect of Y27632 (10 mM) in vivo , corneal thickness and wound area were analyzed for the corneal endothelial wound rabbit model induced by transcorneal freezing.

Ki67 positive cells were increased in the Y27632 group (9.1 ± 4.1%) than the control group (8.0 ± 5.9%), whereas annexin V positive cells in the Y27632 group (2.9 ± 1.0%) were decreased compared to the control group (4.2 ± 2.2%). However these were not statistically significant. Wound area after Y27632 application in animal model is concerned, the control group showed significant smaller area (45.6 ± 0.6 mm²) compared to the Y27632 group (49.3 ± 0.8 mm²; p = 0.029, Mann-Whitney U test), however, these were not significantly different from the baseline. Corneal thickness was not different between the two groups.

Different from other reports for the effect of Y27632, no significant effect on the proliferation in vitro and wound healing in vivo , regarding human corneal endothelial cell, were found in this study.