Lacrimal Gland Myoepithelial Cells Are Altered in a Mouse Model of Dry Eye Disease

The lacrimal gland secretes tear fluids to ocular surface, which plays an indispensable role in maintaining the health of the ocular epithelia and protecting the ocular surface from the external environment. The dysfunction of the lacrimal glands causes dry eye disease due to a reduction in tear volume. The dry eye disease is becoming a popular public disease, for the number of patients is increasing, who have subjective symptom and loss of vision, which affect the quality of life. Inflammatory change in the damaged lacrimal gland has been reported; however, a major challenge is to establish a simple animal model to observe the changes. Here, we demonstrated an injury model by ligating the main excretory duct of the lacrimal gland, which is a simple and stable way to clearly understand the mechanism of lacrimal gland inflammation. We observed the process of injury and proliferation of the lacrimal gland and detected a population of lacrimal gland epithelial cells with proliferation potential which were also nestin-positive cells following duct ligation. This study successfully established an injury model to observe the tissue injury process of the lacrimal gland, and this model will be useful for analysis of the inflammation and proliferation mechanism in the future.

Download Full-text

Effect of Dry Eye Disease on the Kinetics of Lacrimal Gland Dendritic Cells as Visualized by Intravital Multi-Photon Microscopy

Frontiers in Immunology ◽

10.3389/fimmu.2020.01713 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Gustavo Ortiz ◽

Cecilia Chao ◽

Arsia Jamali ◽

Yashar Seyed-Razavi ◽

Brendan Kenyon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dendritic Cells ◽

Dry Eye ◽

Lacrimal Gland ◽

Dry Eye Disease ◽

Eye Disease ◽

Kinetics Of

Download Full-text

Characterization of dry eye disease in a mouse model by optical coherence tomography and fluorescein staining

Biomedical Optics Express ◽

10.1364/boe.10.004884 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (9) ◽

pp. 4884

Author(s):

Alina Messner ◽

Corinna Fischak ◽

Martin Pfister ◽

Kornelia Schützenberger ◽

Fabian Garreis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Optical Coherence Tomography ◽

Mouse Model ◽

Dry Eye ◽

Dry Eye Disease ◽

Eye Disease ◽

Optical Coherence ◽

Fluorescein Staining

Download Full-text

MSC Transplantation Improves Lacrimal Gland Regeneration after Surgically Induced Dry Eye Disease in Mice

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-019-54840-5 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jana Dietrich ◽

Lolita Ott ◽

Mathias Roth ◽

Joana Witt ◽

Gerd Geerling ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dry Eye ◽

Lacrimal Gland ◽

Immune Reaction ◽

Tear Film ◽

Dry Eye Disease ◽

Eye Disease ◽

Duct Ligation ◽

Promising Therapeutic Approach ◽

High Prevalence ◽

Surgically Induced

AbstractDry eye disease (DED) is a multifactorial disease characterized by a disrupted tear film homeostasis and inflammation leading to visual impairments and pain in patients. Aqueous-deficient dry eye (ADDE) causes the most severe progressions and depends mainly on the loss of functional lacrimal gland (LG) tissue. Despite a high prevalence, therapies remain palliative. Therefore, it is of great interest to develop new approaches to curatively treat ADDE. Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSC) have been shown to induce tissue regeneration and cease inflammation. Moreover, an increasing amount of MSC was found in the regenerating LG of mice. Therefore, this study investigated the therapeutic effect of MSC transplantation on damaged LGs using duct ligation induced ADDE in mice. Due to the transplantation of sex-mismatched and eGFP-expressing MSC, MSC could be identified and detected until day 21. MSC transplantation significantly improved LG regeneration, as the amount of vital acinar structures was significantly increased above the intrinsic regeneration capacity of control. Additionally, MSC transplantation modulated the immune reaction as macrophage infiltration was delayed and TNFα expression decreased, accompanied by an increased IL-6 expression. Thus, the application of MSC appears to be a promising therapeutic approach to induce LG regeneration in patients suffering from severe DED/ADDE.

Download Full-text