Comparison of Corneal Wound Healing Rates after Instillation of Commercially Available Latanoprost and Travoprost in Rat Debrided Corneal Epithelium

We compared the corneal toxicity of two commercially available anti-glaucoma ophthalmic solutions, travoprost eye drops with sofzia consist of boric acid (H3BO3) and zinc chloride (ZnCl2) and latanoprost eye drops with benzalkonium chloride (BAC), using rat debrided corneal epithelium. Rat corneal epithelium was removed with a BD Micro-Sharp (TM), and the wounded corneas were dyed with a 1% fluorescein solution. The corneal wounds were monitored using a fundus camera TRC-50X equipped with a digital camera. Eye drops were instilled into the rat eyes five times a day after corneal epithelial abrasion. The corneal wound of a rat eye instilled with saline showed 50.9% and 83.4% healing 12 and 24 h after corneal epithelial abrasion, respectively. The healing rate of the corneal wound of a rat eye instilled with travoprost eye drops with sofzia was similar to that of the eye instilled with saline, and this rate was higher than in an eye instilled with latanoprost eye drops with BAC. The rates of corneal wound healing were also lower in eyes instilled with BAC and H3BO3 eye drops than in eyes instilled with saline. In contrast to the results with BAC and H3BO3, the instillation of ZnCl2 enhanced corneal wound healing in comparison with the instillation of saline The present study demonstrates that the classic preservative system using BAC may be more toxic to rat corneal epithelium than the new preservative system using H3BO3/ZnCl2. Travoprost eye drops with sofzia may provide effective therapy for glaucoma patients using long-term ophthalmic agents.