ArticleInfection and immunity2011
Role of defensins in corneal epithelial barrier function against Pseudomonas aeruginosa traversal.
Article in Infection and immunity, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed, 77 citations in OpenAlex.
- What We Can Do in Infectious Keratitis, Except for Conventional Antimicrobial-Based Therapies: Major Narrative Review.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Prior contact lens wear reduces susceptibility of the superficially-injured cornea to bacterial adhesion.PloS one · 2026Article
- TRPV1 Defends the Healthy Murine Cornea Against Staphylococcus aureus Adhesion Independently of Sensory Nerve Firing.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Article
- ThemBio · 2025Article
- Contact Lens Wear Alters Transcriptional Responses to Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Both the Corneal Epithelium and the Bacteria.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Article
- Contact Lens Wear Alters Transcriptional Responses tobioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Increased tolerance to commonly used antibiotics in aMicrobiology (Reading, England) · 2024Article
- Mechanisms and regulation of defensins in host defense.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2023Review
- Comparative Evaluation ofVision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Mammals' humoral immune proteins and peptides targeting the bacterial envelope: from natural protection to therapeutic applications against multidrug-resistant Gram-negatives.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2022Review
- Antimicrobial Peptide Expression at the Ocular Surface and Their Therapeutic Use in the Treatment of Microbial Keratitis.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- Potential Therapeutic Targets for Combination Antibody Therapy againstAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- An Organ System-Based Synopsis ofVirulence · 2021Review
- Human tear fluid modulates the Pseudomonas aeruginosa transcriptome to alter antibiotic susceptibility.The ocular surface · 2021Article
- Nerve-associated transient receptor potential ion channels can contribute to intrinsic resistance to bacterial adhesion in vivo.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2021Article
- Pivotal Role of Corneal Fibroblasts in Progression to Corneal Ulcer in Bacterial Keratitis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Foundational concepts in the biology of bacterial keratitis.Experimental eye research · 2021Review
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa-induced nociceptor activation increases susceptibility to infection.PLoS pathogens · 2021Article
- Alternative Therapeutic Interventions: Antimicrobial Peptides and Small Molecules to Treat Microbial Keratitis.Frontiers in chemistry · 2021Review
- Corneal Infection Models: Tools to Investigate the Role of Biofilms in Bacterial Keratitis.Cells · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Studies have shown that epithelium-expressed antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), e.g., β-defensins, play a role in clearing bacteria from mouse corneas already infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Less is known about the role of AMPs in allowing the cornea to resist infection when healthy. We previously reported that contact lens exposure, a major cause of P. aeruginosa keratitis, can inhibit the upregulation of human β-defensin 2 (hBD-2) by corneal epithelial cells in response to P. aeruginosa antigens in vitro. Here, we studied the role of AMPs in maintaining the corneal epithelial barrier to P. aeruginosa penetration using both in vitro (human) and in vivo (mouse) experiments. Results showed that preexposing human corneal epithelial multilayers to bacterial antigens in a culture supernatant (known to upregulate AMP expression) reduced epithelial susceptibility to P. aeruginosa traversal up to 6-fold (P < 0.001). Accordingly, small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown of any one of four AMPs expressed by human epithelia promoted P. aeruginosa traversal by more than 3-fold (P < 0.001). The combination knockdown of AMPs further enhanced susceptibility to bacterial traversal by ∼8-fold (P < 0.001). In vivo experiments showed that the loss of murine β-defensin 3 (mBD-3), a murine ortholog of hBD-2, enhanced corneal susceptibility to P. aeruginosa. The uninjured ocular surface of mBD-3(-/-) mice showed a reduced capacity to clear P. aeruginosa, and their corneal epithelia were more susceptible to bacterial colonization, even when inoculated ex vivo to exclude tear fluid effects. Together, these in vitro and in vivo data show functional roles for AMPs in normal corneal epithelial cell barrier function against P. aeruginosa.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.