Fig. 2
Subconjunctival administration of low-dose allogeneic MSCs prolongs corneal allograft survival with pre-transplant injection the crucial factor. Female Balb/c mice served as recipients for female C57BL/6 donor corneas. Allogeneic MSCs were administered subconjunctivally using three different treatment strategies. Mice received one injection of 5 × 104 MSCs either the day before transplantation (D−1) or the day after transplantation (D+1) or two separate doses at D−1 and D+1. Control mice received PBS alone at D−1 and D+1. Mice were observed every 2/3 days. a Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis of corneal allograft + PBS (D−1, D+1)-treated control mice (gray line) (n = 6), corneal allograft + 5 × 104 allogeneic MSCs (D−1, D+1) (green line) (n = 7), corneal allograft + 5 × 104 allogeneic MSCs (D+1) (blue line) (n = 7), corneal allograft + 5 × 104 allogeneic MSCs (D−1) (red line) (n = 8), and corneal allograft + 5 × 104 syngeneic MSCs (D−1, D+1) (black line) (n = 8) (Log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test, *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01). b Opacity and c neovascularization scores up to POD 40. n = 6–8 with numbers per treatment group the same as in a. Error bars show mean + SD