Study of pathological processes of meibomian gland dysfunction by in vitro culture airlifting conditions

Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) is a group of disorders linked by functional abnormalities of the meibomian glands. Current studies on MGD pathogenesis focus on meibomian gland cells, providing information on a single cell's response to experimental manipulation, and do not maintain the architecture of an intact meibomian gland acinus and the acinar epithelial cells' secretion state in vivo. In this study, rat meibomian gland explants were cultured by a Transwell chamber-assisted method under an air-liquid interface (airlift) in vitro for 96 h. Analyses for tissue viability, histology, biomarker expression, and lipid accumulation were performed with 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and TUNEL assays, hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, immunofluorescence, Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and western blotting (WB). MTT, TUNEL, and H&E staining indicated better tissue viability and morphology than the submerged conditions used in previous studies. Levels of MGD biomarkers, including keratin 1 (KRT1) and 14 (KRT14) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-γ), along with oxidative stress markers, including reactive oxygen species, malondialdehyde, and 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal, gradually increased over culture time. The MGD pathophysiological changes and biomarker expression of meibomian gland explants cultured under airlift conditions were similar to those reported by previous studies, indicating that abnormal acinar cell differentiation and glandular epithelial cell hyperkeratosis may contribute to obstructive MGD occurrence.