目的：研究雌二醇(estradiol，E2)和丙酸睾酮(testosterone propionate，TP)对兔泪腺上皮细胞凋亡及对MMP-9蛋白表达的影响，探讨雌二醇及丙酸睾酮对干眼的作用机制。方法：体外培养兔泪腺上皮细胞，分别给予雌二醇及丙酸睾酮处理，双氧水(H₂O₂)诱导细胞凋亡，流式细胞仪检测细胞凋亡和免疫细胞化学法检测细胞MMP-9蛋白表达。实验分4组：凋亡对照组(AC组)、雌二醇组(E2组)、丙酸睾酮组(TP组)和空白对照组(BC组)。AC组只给予H₂O₂诱导凋亡，E2组给予1×10^-5mol/L雌二醇处理，TP组给予丙酸睾酮处理，BC组未加药物干预及未加H2O2诱导凋亡。结果：经H₂O₂诱导细胞凋亡后，泪腺上皮细胞早期凋亡率和MMP-9蛋白表达累积光密度值与BC组相比，AC组、E2组及TP组均显著增加；同比AC组，E2组及TP组细胞凋亡率和MMP-9蛋白表达量降低；E2组凋亡率及蛋白表达量比TP组明显降低；其差异均具有统计学意义(P<0.01)。结论：雌二醇和丙酸睾酮对H₂O₂诱导兔泪腺上皮细胞凋亡有一定的抑制作用，同时泪腺上皮细胞中MMP-9表达含量也降低，提示雌二醇和丙酸睾酮抑制兔泪腺上皮细胞凋亡的作用机制可能与MMP-9有关。

Objective: To investigate the effects of estradiol (E2) and testosterone propionate (TP) on apoptosis and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) expression in rabbit lacrimal gland epithelial cells. Methods: The rabbit lacrimal gland epithelial cells were cultured in vitro. H₂O₂ was used to induce apoptosis in cultured lacrimal gland epithelial cells and then treated with E2 and TP respectively. Cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometer (FCM) and MMP-9 expression was evaluated by immunocytochemistry. There were four groups: apoptosis control group (AC), estradiol group (E2), testosterone propionate group (TP) and blank control group (BC) respectively. The cells of group AC were administrated with H₂O₂ only, group E2 and group TP with 1×10^_5 mol/L E2 and TP respectively and group BC in treated. Statistical analysis were performed with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA test)using SPSS 16.0, P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Compared with group BC, the early cells apoptosis rate and integrated optical density of MMP-9 expression of lacrimal gland in group AC, E2 and TP increased significantly after the cells were induced by H₂O₂; Compared with group AC, group E2 and TP reduced; group E2 were significantly lower than group TP; the differences were all statistically significant (P<0.01). Conclusion: E2 and TP had a certain inhibitory effect on rabbit lacrimal gland epithelial cells apoptosis induced by H₂O₂. Meanwhile, MMP-9 expression of the lacrimal gland cells was decreased. These results indicated that E2 and TP on the apoptosis inhibitory mechanism of lacrimal gland cells may be related with MMP-9.