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Updated: Mar 30, 2026
Recurrent Herpetic Stromal Keratitis in Mice, a Model for Studying Human HSK
Published on: December 18, 2012
Confocal Microscopic Analysis of a Rabbit Eye Model of High-Incidence Recurrent Herpes Stromal Keratitis
James V Jester1, Naoyuki Morishige, Lbachir BenMohamed
1*Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA; †Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Irvine, Irvine; ‡Department of Ophthalmology, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Yamaguchi, Japan; §Cellular and Molecular Immunology Laboratory, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA ¶Institute for Immunology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA ‖Department of Microbiology and Immunology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan Taiwan; **School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Nebraska Center for Virology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE; ††Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA; and ‡‡The Center for Virus Research, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA.
Purpose:
Using CJLAT, a chimeric herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) that produces a high incidence of herpes stromal keratitis (HSK) in latently infected rabbits, and in vivo confocal microscopy (CM), we characterized the cellular events that precede the development of HSK.
Methods:
Thirty days after infection, in vivo CM was performed daily for 10 days and then weekly for up to 80 days after infection.
Results:
We detected 3 types of subclinical corneal lesions before HSK was clinically apparent: (1) small epithelial erosions; (2) regenerating epithelium overlying small cell infiltrates within the basal epithelial cell layer; and (3) dendritic-like cells within the basal epithelial layer overlying stromal foci containing infiltrating cells. Sequential in vivo CM observations suggested that subclinical foci resolved over time but were larger and more abundant with CJLAT than with wild-type HSV-1 McKrae. Active HSK was observed only with CJLAT and was initially associated with a large epithelial lesion overlying stromal immune cell infiltrates.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that replication in the cornea of reactivated virus from the trigeminal ganglia produces epithelial lesions, which recruit immune cell infiltrates into the basal epithelial layer and anterior stroma. The virus is usually cleared rapidly eliminating viral antigens before the arrival of the immune cells, which disperse. However, if the virus is not cleared rapidly, or if an additional reactivation results in an additional round of virus at the same site before the immune cells disperse, then the immune cells are stimulated and may induce an immunopathological response leading to the development of HSK.
