Eye bank versus surgeon prepared Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty tissues: Influence on adhesion force in a pilot study

PURPOSE: To evaluate and compare the biomechanical properties of the eye bank-prepared and surgeon prepared Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) tissues. METHODS: In this laboratory study, corneal tissues for research were randomly allocated in the following groups: a) surgeon-cut DSAEK and b) eye bank-prepared (pre-cut and pre-loaded) DSAEK. Endothelial cell loss (ECL), immunostaining for tight junction protein ZO-1, elastic modulus, and adhesion force were investigated. RESULTS: ECL was not found to be significantly different between surgeon-cut DSAEK (7.8% ±6.5%), pre-cut DSAEK (8.6% ±2.3%), and pre-loaded DSAEK (11.1% ±4.8%) (P = 0.5910). ZO-1 was expressed equally across all groups. Surgeon-cut DSAEK grafts showed a significantly higher elastic modulus compared to pre-cut and pre-loaded DSAEK groups (P = 0.0047 and P < 0.0001, respectively). Adhesion force was significantly greater in the surgeon-cut DSAEK compared to pre-cut (P < 0.0001) or pre-loaded DSAEK groups (P = 0.0101). CONCLUSION: The laboratory data on the biomechanics of DSAEK grafts suggests that surgeon-cut DSAEK grafts present higher elastic modulus and adhesion force compared to eye bank-prepared DSAEK grafts.