Purpose: To study the effect of human IFN-gamma on in vitro cultured human fibroblasts from Tenon's capsule.
Materials and methods: The effect of different concentrations of human IFN-gamma and mitomycin-C (MMC), 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) on cultured human Tenon's capsule fibroblasts (HTCF) was measured using a MTT [3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazo-2-yl)]-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide; Thiazolyl blue) colorimetric assay. The results were analyzed using ANOVA of the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) 9.0 version. The difference was considered to be significant if P < 0.05.
Results: The effects of MMC and 5-Fu on the growth of HTCF were negative, while the effects of IFN-gamma on the growth of HTCF were both negative (10(2)-10(4) units/ml in two experiments) and positive (10(6), 10(5), 10 units/ml in two experiments). The inhibition rate of MMC ranged from 5.73% to 46.9%, which was similar to the inhibition rate of 5-Fu ranged from 12.49% to 38.92% (P = 0.351). The inhibition rate of IFN-gamma in two experiments was smaller than MMC and 5-Fu (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: IFN-gamma has bifunctional effect (both enhancement and inhibition) on proliferation of cultured HTCF. The antiproliferative effect of IFN-gamma was weaker than MMC and 5-Fu. Further study has to be carried out to document the inhibition of scar formation of filtration bleb by IFN-gamma and the molecular mechanisms of its bifunctional effect on HTCF proliferation.