Six-week-old albino Sprague Dawley (SD) male rats were provided by the Experimental Animal Centre of the Second Affiliated Hospitalof Harbin Medical University. Fifteen minutes before exposure, the rats were anaesthetized by intraperitoneal injection of a mixture of 90 mg/kg ketamine and 15 mg/kg xylazine. Then, tropicamide phenylephrine was dropped in both eyes; at the same time, the rats that received drug treatment were injected subconjunctivally (5 ul/eye) with 500 mM Fer-1, 200 mM MT or the same dose of DMSO used to dissolve the drug using a 28-gauge needle and a Hamilton microinjector. After another 5 min, a single eye of every experimental group rat was exposed to UVB (312 nm) 5 W/m2 for 30 min. Every time, UVB exposure was synchronized with the drug injection, and the frequency was every other day until it was stopped 9 weeks later.

Six-week-old albino Sprague Dawley (SD) male rats were provided by the Experimental Animal Centre of the Second Affiliated Hospitalof Harbin Medical University. Fifteen minutes before exposure, the rats were anaesthetized by intraperitoneal injection of a mixture of 90 mg/kg ketamine and 15 mg/kg xylazine. Then, tropicamide phenylephrine was dropped in both eyes; at the same time, the rats that received drug treatment were injected subconjunctivally (5 ul/eye) with 500 mM Fer-1, 200 mM MT or the same dose of DMSO used to dissolve the drug using a 28-gauge needle and a Hamilton microinjector. After another 5 min, a single eye of every experimental group rat was exposed to UVB (312 nm) 5 W/m2 for 30 min. Every time, UVB exposure was synchronized with the drug injection, and the frequency was every other day until it was stopped 9 weeks later.