Characterization of a Standard Strain of Human Scleral Fibroblasts

Abnormal wound healing and ocular scarring play a role in either the pathogenesis or treatment failure of most blinding diseases, including post-operative failure of glaucoma filtration surgery. Although use of human cells derived from primary tissue is optimal for studying these processes, such cells exhibit a reduced division capacity leading to senescence in vitro, which limits opportunities for research. In human dermal fibroblasts it has been shown that this "replicative senescence" is triggered by progressive telomeric attrition and can be prevented by ectopic expression of the catalytic subunit of human telomere reverse transcriptase (telomerase or hTERT). Telomerase expression results in immortal cell lines with a phenotype similar to that of normal primary cells. The goal of this project is the derivation of an immortalized ocular fibroblast cell line, which would facilitate the study of therapeutic targets in ocular disease.