Establishment of the mild, moderate and severe dry eye models using three methods in rabbits

BMC Ophthalmology

Research Article

Dongqing Zhao¹  Shihua Zhang¹  Meifeng He²  Yang Gao²  Xinguo Deng²  Na Li³ 

[1] Huizhou First Hospital, 20 Sanxin Road South, 516001, Huizhou, China;State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, 54 Xianlie Road South, 510060, Guangzhou, China;State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, 54 Xianlie Road South, 510060, Guangzhou, China;Huizhou First Hospital, 20 Sanxin Road South, 516001, Huizhou, China;

关键词: Dry eye;    Rabbit model;    Conjunctival impression cytology;    Corneal fluorescein staining;    Schirmer I test;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2415-13-50

 received in 2013-02-27, accepted in 2013-09-27,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDry eye (DE) is a common eye disease, and appropriate animal models are essential to explore the pathogenesis and therapy of DE. In this study, we aimed to establish rabbit models by three methods.MethodsIn group A, the lacrimal gland, Harderian gland, and nictitating membrane of the left eyes were surgically removed. In group B, the bulbar conjunctiva of the left eyes was burned with 50% trichloroacetic acid. In group C, both methods above were used. The right eyes served as normal controls. The Schirmer I test (SIt), fluorescein staining, and impression cytology were evaluated at baseline and on days 28, 42, and 56.ResultsBoth the SIt and goblet cell density were significantly lower in operated eyes compared to the control eyes, while the corneal fluorescein staining scores in the operated eyes were significantly higher than in the control eyes on days 28, 42, and 56 (p < 0.05, p < 0.01 or p < 0.001). The SIt and goblet cell densities in groups B and C were significantly lower than group A on days 28, 42, and 56 (p < 0.05, p < 0.01 or p < 0.001). In addition, the corneal fluorescein staining scores in group C were significantly higher than either group A or group B on days 28, 42, and 56, while fluorescein staining scores were higher in group B than group A on days 42 and 56 days (p < 0.05, p < 0.01 or p < 0.001), with mean score 3.8 ± 1.30 (group A), 7.4 ± 1.14 (group B) and 10.8 ± 1.30 (group C) on day 56.ConclusionsResults suggest that three separate DE models, with mild, moderate, and severe manifestations of DE, could be stably established, in which conjunctival goblet cells took an important role.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Li et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.