USE OF PLATELET DERIVED GROWTH FACTOR IN OPHTHALMIC WOUND HEALING

摘要

A method of accelerating corneal wound healing in the corneal anterior stroma and/or improving the quality of wound healing in a mammal comprises: (1) providing an ophthalmically compatible solution of platelet-derived growth factor; and (2) applying the solution to the cornea of a mammal at the time of or subsequent to occurrence of a corneal wound in a quantity sufficient to accelerate clinically detectable healing, the healing being accelerated through proliferation of epithelial cells and/or keratocytes of the cornea stimulated by application of the platelet-derived growth factor to the cornea. The platelet-derived growth factor can be selected from the group consisting of the AA isoform, the AB isoform, the BB isoform, and mixtures thereof. A preferable form of platelet-derived growth factor is a recombinantly-derived refolded B-chain homodimer of 119 amino acids, having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1. The concentration of platelet-derived growth factor in the solution can be from about 10 mu g/ml to about 1000 mu g/ml, preferably from about 50 mu g/ml to about 500 mu g/ml, and most preferably about 100 mu g/ml.