| Research Abstract |
To discover the mechanism of ocular surface chronic inflammation in patients with allergic conjunctivitis, we analyzed 1) quantitative cellular evaluation of inflammatory cells in the conjunctival epithelium, 2) presence of cytokine in the tear of patients with allergic conjunctivitis, 3) conjunctival epithelium staining with RANTES monoclonal antibody, 4) expression of cytokine mRNA in allegic conjunctivitis patients using reverse-transcripts polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
1) Chronic inflammation of the ocular surface increased in severity with increased percentage of neutorophils found in the conjunctival epithelium.
2) We examined the presence of RANTES that belongs to the chemokine beta family in the tears using ELISA.RANTES was detectable in the diluted tears of patients with allergic conjunctivitis, while no RANTES presence in the tears of normal controls was observed. RANTES tear levels in patients with allergic conjunctivitis during the symptomatic phase were higher than those during the asymptomatic phase in same patients.
3) Upper tarsal conjunctival specimens were obtained from vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) patients and non-allergic patient. Conjunctival tissue were fixed in acetone, then incubated with anti-human RANTES monoclonal antibody (murine IgG). Conjunctival epithelial cells (basal and supra-basal cells) from VKC patient which stained positively for RANTES.On the other hand, those from a non-allergic patient did not stain.
4) In VKC,RANTES,IL-4, TNF-alpha and IFN-gammamRNA expression in the conjunctival cells were found to be higher than in seasonal allergic conjunctivitis and perennial allergic conjunctivitis. These results suggest RNATES and inflammatory cytokines are expressed in elevated levels in the conjunctival epithelia of VKC.Local inflammatory processes in the conjunctiva may play an important role in the epithelial damage of VKC.
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