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Corneal nerves maintain the immune privilege of the cornea
Author(s) -
Hamrah P.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2015.0263
Subject(s) - immune privilege , cornea , axotomy , corneal transplantation , medicine , immune system , transplantation , immunology , pathology , central nervous system , ophthalmology
Summary The aim of the current study is to investigate if neuronal dysfunction leads to the loss of corneal immune privilege. After trigeminal axotomy, corneal cytokines were measured by multiplex bead assay. Corneal hem‐ (HG) and lymph‐angiogenesis (LG), as well as immune cell infiltration and phenotype were assessed by immunohistochemistry staining. Trigeminal axotomy was performed in recipient mice one week prior to corneal transplantation and allospecific delayed‐type hypersensitivity (DTH) was used to compare results between groups. Axotomy resulted in significant increase of CD45+ cells and up‐regulation of MHC‐2. Pro‐inflammatory cytokines in the cornea were significantly increased. The area of corneal HG and LG were significantly increased by 6.3 fold and 5.7 fold respectively. Axotomy before corneal transplantation resulted in rejection of all grafts, and donor‐specific DTH response in these mice was positive at 2 weeks, as compared to transplanted mice without prior axotomy.Neurogenic immune homeostasis is a critical process, whereby the peripheral nervous system directly maintains corneal immune privilege.