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PURPOSE: Pharmacologic vitreolysis is a new approach to improve vitreo-retinal surgery. Ultimately, the development of drugs to liquefy and detach vitreous from retina should prevent disease by mitigating the contribution of vitreous to retinopathy and eliminate the need for surgery. However, the mechanism of action of pharmacologic vitreolysis remains unclear. The technique of Dynamic light scattering (DLS) was used to evaluate the effects of microplasmin by following the diffusion coefficients of spherical polystyrene nano-particles injected with microplasmin into the vitreous. METHODS: Diffusion coefficients in dissected (n=9) porcine eyes were measured in vitro. DLS was performed on all specimens at 37°C as often as every 10 minutes for up to 6 hours following injections of human recombinant microplasmin at doses ranging from 0.125 mg to 0.8 mg, with 20 nm diameter tracer nanospheres. RESULTS: DLS findings in untreated porcine vitreous were similar to the previously described findings in bovine and human vitreous, demonstrating a fast (early) component, resulting from the flexible hyaluronan molecules, and a slow (late) component, resulting form the stiff collagen molecules. Microplasmin increased porcine vitreous diffusion coefficients. A new approach was developed to use DLS measurements of vitreous diffusion coefficients to evaluate the effects of microplasmin in intact eyes. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacologic vitreolysis with human recombinant microplasmin increases vitreous diffusion coefficients in vitro. The results of these studies indicate that this new approach using DLS to measure vitreous diffusion coefficients can be used to study the effects of pharmacologic vitreolysis using microplasmin and other agents in intact eyes and ultimately in vivo.
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