Premium
The corneal nerves in glaucoma and ocular surface diseases
Author(s) -
Labbe A.,
Liang H.,
Baudouin C.
Publication year - 2017
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.1755-3768.2017.03124
Subject(s) - pathological , glaucoma , medicine , ophthalmology , cornea , pathology , confocal microscopy , corneal epithelium , biology , microbiology and biotechnology
Summary In addition to their important sensory function, corneal nerves provide protective and trophic functions and also regulate corneal epithelial integrity, proliferation and wound healing. The well‐defined in vivo confocal microscopy ( IVCM ) appearance of the subbasal corneal nerves has facilitated their quantitative in vivo analysis in ocular surface diseases. Although patients with dry eyes and patients treated for glaucoma experience similar ocular surface signs and symptoms, different correlations between corneal sensation and nerve morphology were observed in these two groups of patients. The relationship between corneal nerve function and structure remains complex, and nerve alteration and/or dysfunction could be different among different ocular surface diseases. Improvements in IVCM image acquisition and analysis will be an important step to further evaluate the role of corneal nerves in physiological and pathological ocular surface conditions.