Figure 1 | Scientific Reports

Figure 1

From: Ocular surface inflammation induces de novo expression of substance P in the trigeminal primary afferents with large cell bodies

Figure 1

Benzalkonium-induced ocular surface changes. (A) The representative images of corneal vital staining, corneal TUNEL assay, corneal H&E staining, and conjunctival periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining in the control, BAK (benzalkonium), 1 w, and 2 m groups were taken by a camera-equipped surgical microscope (OPMI 1 FR pro, Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany), confocal laser scanning microscope (LSM800, Carl Zeiss), and an inverted light microscope (DMI 5000B, Leica, Wetzlar, Germany). In the BAK group, punctate epithelial erosions (green), apoptotic cells (red), and inflammatory cells with small round nucleus were markedly noted by vital staining, TUNEL assay, and H&E staining. Conjunctival goblet cells (violet) with PAS staining were greatly reduced in the BAK group. All scale bars = 100 μm. (B) The graphs of corneal staining score (left), the number of apoptotic cells (middle), and the goblet cell density (right) show that BAK treatment induced the ocular surface damage of the experimental rats and those alterations were not observed at 2 months after BAK treatment. *Significant difference between two groups by Dunn’s multiple comparison test as a post-hoc test of non-parametric ANOVA test (P < 0.05).

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