Work

Multifunctional Mesoporous Titanium Dioxide Nanodrug for Corneal Haze Treatment and Its Mechanism

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Preventing and treating corneal haze is essential after corneal surface refractive surgery. However, the high intraocular pressure that results after applying traditional anti-inflammatory corticosteroids has attracted great attention. Therefore, we synthesized a multifunctional nanomedicine (Tet@TiO2) with controlled drug release, inflammation targeting and good biocompatibility for corneal haze treatment. In this study, we discovered that Tet@TiO2 and Tet, but not TiO2, displayed a characteristic absorption peak at 282 nm. Three weeks after TransPRK surgery, the Tet@TiO2 group displayed significant decreases in nuclear volume, corneal cell edema, type I and III collagen fiber expression, normal organelle morphology and collagen fiber arrangement. Compared with the control and TiO2 groups, α-SMA, CTGF and type III collagen fibers in the Tet@TiO2 group decreased more significantly than after FML and Tet treatment, indicating that Tet@TiO2 can effectively inhibit the expression of these inflammatory factors during corneal haze formation. Besides, Tet@TiO2 showed good, sustained antibacterial properties. More importantly, we found that Tet@TiO2 could effectively downregulate the expression of PI3K, AKT and Bcl-2 and upregulate the expression of Bax by modulating the inflammatory PI3K-AKT-Bax/Bcl-2 signaling pathway after corneal surface refractive surgery to effectively prevent and treat corneal haze by reducing the expression of inflammatory factors.

Source: Biomaterials Research

DOI: 10.34133/bmr.0202