Deterioration of wound healing and intense suppression of MMP-9 mRNA expression after short-term administration of different topical glucocorticoids or NSAIDs in an avian model of corneal lesions

Corneal lesions are considered among important ophthalmic conditions in avian patients. Short-term outcome of using anti-inflammatory agents in corneal lesions of birds are not well-described. The study evaluates effects of different anti-inflammatory agents on healing of alkali burn-induced corneal lesions in layer hens as an avian model. Adult layers were randomly allocated into 7 groups (n=15) as follows: 1. Negative (normal) control (NC), and 2. Positive control (PC) with an experimentally induced-corneal lesion, 3-7. Birds with corneal lesions that were treated with dexamethasone, fluorometholone, prednisolone, ketorolac, or diclofenac eye-drops every 6 hours (QID) for 5 consecutive days. At the end of the experiment, proper healing was observed in PC group based on lesion area, while treated groups showed statistically larger lesion sizes as compared to PC birds (P