Abstract
Purpose :
Both dry eye disease and allergic conjunctivitis are inflammatory diseases at the ocular surface. Dry eye disease is often associated with allergic conjunctivitis. However, the interaction of these diseases has not been examined extensively. We investigated the roles of dry eye disease on allergic conjunctivitis using animal model.
Methods :
To induce allergic conjunctivitis, BALB/c mice were sensitised with ovalbumin (OVA) in alum three times intraperitoneally at a 7-day interval. Twenty days after the initial sensitization, the mice were challenged with OVA in eye drop. Control mice received sensitization but were challenged with phosphate buffered saline (PBS). Twenty minutes after the last challenge, the clinical appearance including hyperemia, edema, discharge, and eyelid swelling was evaluated. Twenty-four hours later, the conjunctivas were collected to determine the number of infiltrated eosinophils. To induce dry eye, extraorbital lacrimal glands were excised a day before the initial sensitizeation of OVA, and the amount of tear fluid and corneal fluorescein scores for corneal epithelial disorder were evaluated. Control mice were sham treated.
Results :
The amount of tear fluids decreased significantly in mice excised lacrimal glands regardless of the induction of allergic conjunctivitis. Corneal fluorescein scores was significantly increased in mice excised lacrimal glands and further increased in allergy-induced mice than in control mice. Clinical score of early-phase reaction was increased in allergy-induced mice than mice with PBS administration. Hyperemia and edema in clinical scores were further elevated in dry eye mice than sham-treated mice. The number of infiltrated eosinophils in conjunctiva was significantly increased in allergy-induced mice but further increase was not observed with or without dry eye.
Conclusions :
These results indicate that the combination of dry eye and allergic conjunctivitis leads to exacerbation of corneal epithelial damages and allergic symptoms presumably mediated by barrier disruption of ocular surface.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.