Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 20, 2026
Establishing a Severe Corneal Inflammation Model in Rats Based on Corneal Epithelium Curettage Combined with Corneal Sutures
Published on: November 22, 2024
[Molecular mechanism of pathological keratinization in severe ocular surface diseases]
1Department of Ophthalmology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, 465 Kajii-cho, Kawaramachi Hirokoji, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-0841, Japan.
Purpose:
To investigate the molecular mechanism of pathological keratinization in severe ocular surface diseases based on the process of epidermal physiological keratinization and the gene expression profile of ocular surface epithelium.
Materials And Methods:
We examined conjunctiva covering corneas which had ocular surface diseases in which pathological keratinization was seen. We then investigated the expression of epidermal keratinization-related proteins and clusterin, which is the most abundant gene transcript in human corneal epithelium.
Results:
Semiquantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry showed that transglutaminase 1, involucrin, filaggrin, and cytokeratin 1/10 expression was upregulated in keratinized conjunctiva compared to normal conjunctiva. On the other hand, the level of clusterin expression in the diseased ocular surfaces was significantly lower than normal. We also concluded that clusterin expression may depend on the severity of the pathological keratinization.
Conclusion:
Various keratinization-related proteins and clusterin are most likely to be involved in the pathogenesis of cicatrizing ocular surface diseases.
Related Concept Videos
01:24Cells of the Epidermis
The cells in all these layers except the stratum basale are called keratinocytes, a type of cell that manufactures and stores the protein keratin. The keratinocytes in the stratum corneum are dead and regularly slough away, being replaced by cells from...
01:05Desmosomes