Role of lumican in the corneal epithelium during wound healing

Lumican regulates collagenous matrix assembly as a keratan sulfate proteogl ycan in the cornea and is also present in the connective tissues of other o rgans and embryonic corneal stroma as a glycoprotein. in normal unwounded c ornea, lumican is expressed by stromal keratocytes. Our data show that inju red mouse corneal epithelium ectopically and transiently expresses lumican during the early phase of wound healing, suggesting a potential lumican fun ctionality unrelated to regulation of collagen fibrillogenesis, e.g. modula tion of epithelial cell adhesion or migration. An anti-lumican antibody was found to retard corneal epithelial wound healing in cultured mouse eyes. H ealing of a corneal epithelial injury in Lum(-/-) mice was significantly de layed compared with Lum(+/-) mice. These observations indicate that lumican expressed in injured epithelium may modulate cell behavior such as adhesio n or migration, thus contributing to corneal epithelial wound healing.