Effect of 5-fluorouracil and Mitomycin-C on Blood Aqueous Barrier

Yoo, Chang Yuel; Kim, Yong Yeon; Jung, Hai Ryun

Abstract

The adjunctive use of 5-fluorouracil and mitomycin C remarkably improves the success rate of glaucoma filtering surgery, but these antiproliferative agents may be toxic to other ocular tissues. The authors evaluated the effect of 5-FU and MMC on the blood-aqueous barrier. Sixteen pigmented rabbits were used, 7 for 5-FU group and 9 for MMC group. Five milligrams of 5-FU(0.1ml) was injected subconjunctivally in one eye of each animal in 5-FU group. In MMC group, we made limbus-based conjunctival flap on superotemporal area and applied MMC(0.4 mg/ml) soaked Week-cell sponge on subconjunctival-scleral space for 5 minutes and irrigated with 200 ml of normal saline. The contralateral eyes of each animal in both groups were used for control. We measured protein concentration in anterior chamber with the laser flare-cell meter(Kowa, FM-500). At 7 hours after operation, protein concentration in anterior chamber was significantly higher in 5-FU injected eyes(11.22 +/- 1.98 photons/msec, mean +/- S.D.) than control eyes(7.78 +/- 0.96 photons/msec) in the 5-FU group. There was no difference between MMC treated eyes and control eyes. MMC soaking is thought to be less harmful on the blood-aqueous barrier than 5-FU subconjunctival injection.