BACKGROUND p16 expression is a well established biomarker of cervical dysplasia and carcinoma arising from high risk human papilloma virus infection. Increased p16 expression is also seen in squamous neoplasms arising at other sites, including head, neck, and oropharyngeal tract. Squamous lesions are also frequently encountered at ocular surface and peri-orbital skin sites, but the prevalence o...

Purpose To characterize the ocular surface microbiome of healthy volunteers using a combination of microbial culture and high-throughput DNA sequencing techniques. Methods Conjunctival swab samples from 107 healthy volunteers were analyzed by bacterial culture, 16S rDNA gene deep sequencing (n = 89), and biome representational in silico karyotyping (BRiSK; n = 80). Swab samples of the facial ...

Purpose The S100 fused-type proteins hornerin (HRNR) and filaggrin-2 (FLG2) are members of the epidermal differentiation complex, which is involved in terminal differentiation of keratinocytes via cornification as well as maintenance of the epidermal antimicrobial barrier. We investigated the expression and possible regulation of HRNR and FLG2 at the ocular surface and in the lacrimal apparatus...

PURPOSE To investigate the response characteristics of the corneal afferents that detect ocular conditions critical to the activation of the "afferent limb" of the lacrimation reflex. METHODS In isoflurane-anesthetized male rats, trigeminal ganglia were explored extracellularly in vivo to identify the corneal neurons that can be activated by ocular stimuli important to lacrimation. After veri...

Background Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), are severe cutaneous adverse drug reactions that often induces the mucosal tissue impairments. These symptoms in ocular surface sometimes suffer the patients with pseudomembrane formation leading to vision loss as a sequela. The purpose of this study to reveal the medication tendencies for inducing severe ocular sur...

PURPOSE Corneal and conjunctival epithelia are capable of transcellular Na+ absorption and Cl- secretion, which drives water movement across these tissues. A recent study demonstrated with a new open-circuit potential difference (PD) technique that Cl- moves across the ocular surface in mice through Ca2+- and cAMP-sensitive Cl- channels, the latter pathway being the cystic fibrosis (CF) transme...

This study was designed to evaluate efficacy of a natural eye drop made of Plantago ovata mucilage versus placebo to improve dry eye symptoms. In a Randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled clinical trial, sixty dry eye patients with ocular symptom and total OSDI score≥12 were randomly assigned to receive either a natural ophthalmic drop, made of Plantago ovata mucilage or placebo 4 times a...

Purpose: We report 2 patients with dry eye disease followed up using the expression levels of ocular surface mucin. Case Reports: Patient 1: a 57-year-old woman with Sjögren’s syndrome-associated dry eyes experienced severe dryness and foreign body sensation in both her eyes, and instilled sodium hyaluronate ophthalmic solution 0.3% about 10–15 times daily. We measured the expression levels of ...

OBJECTIVE This study aims to explore the ocular surface of late stage eye burns by impression cytology (IC) and analyze the cytological changes and their relationship to ocular surface abnormalities. PATIENTS AND METHODS 68 eyes with late stage eye burns (thermal burn: 28 eyes; alkali burn: 26 eyes; acid burn: 14 eyes), procured from 68 patients (aged ranges from 17 to 70 years old). Ocular s...