sVEGFR-3 overexpression results in regression of corneal lymphatic and blood vessels; overexpression of sVEGFR-3 is protective of transplant graft survival. (A-B) Lymphatic and blood vessel area 10 days after pCMV.sVEGFR-3 and pCMV.CTR injection, 1 day prior to corneal suturing. pCMV.sVEGFR-3 injection resulted in a 58% decrease in lymphatic area and a 31% decrease in blood vessel area compared with pCMV.CTR (n = 10 each group). (C-D) Penetrating corneal transplantation performed using female mice (8 to 12 weeks old) of the BALB/c strain as graft recipients and mice of the C57BL/6 strain as graft donors. (E) Representative corneas of transplant experiment at 2-, 4-, 6-, and 8-week intervals. (F) Subconjunctival injection with sVEGFR-3–overexpressing plasmid (pCMV.sVEGFR-3) showed that corneal transplant graft survival was 40.0% compared with empty pCMV with 8.3% graft survival in BALB/c recipient mice (n = 9-12). **P < .05 Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. IP, immunoprecipitation; w, weeks.