[Phenotype of the mononuclear cells of the cornea in ocular herpes]

There is now a great deal of evidence for cell-mediated immunopathogenesis of herpetic stromal keratitis. However, this has never been unequivocally demonstrated, so far. Accordingly, we established a new technical approach in which lymphocytes were cornea-eluted, further purified and characterized by means of monoclonal antibodies. Four corneal specimens were obtained after penetrating keratoplasty. The patients suffered from herpetic interstitial keratitis with perforation of the cornea. The most relevant point to emerge from this experiment is the marked infiltration of corneal buttons by suppressor/cytotoxic T cells. This finding strongly supports the recent suggestion, by Ahonen and coworkers that lymphocytes might be cytotoxic for keratocytes.