ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2023
Redefining the human corneal immune compartment using dynamic intravital imaging.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Temporal Variations in Inflammatory-Related Ocular Surface Parameters: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Pooled it
- Corneal macrophages and limbal stem cells: emerging roles in ocular surface regeneration.Annals of medicine · 2026Review
- The effect of 0.1% topical ciclosporin a for 12-weeks on the ocular surface innate and adaptive immune response in dry eye disease: protocol for a randomized controlled clinical trial.Annals of medicine · 2026Article
- Impact of an Ophthalmic Cooling Device on Corneal Immune and Sensory Nerve Features in Chronic Ocular Surface Pain: A Prospective, Feasibility Study.Ophthalmology and therapy · 2026Article
- Corneal and tear film immunology in anterior uveitis: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Long-term ocular symptoms following COVID-19 linked to immune dysregulation, dysautonomia and peripheral neuropathy.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Ocular IL-1α/IFN-γ Delay the Corneal Wound Healing in Rheumatoid Arthritis Through Mitochondrial Dysfunction and NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- When Macrophages Heal and When They Scar: Timing in Corneal Fibrosis.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- IVCM-Insight: automated interactive interpretation of in vivo confocal microscopy.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Article
- Corneal Innervation Research at a Crossroads: A Tool-Driven Roadmap for the Future.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Review
- Tissue resident memory T cells populate the human uveal tract.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Diurnal Variation, Topographical Distribution and Day-to-Day Repeatability of Ocular Surface Epithelial Immune Cells in Individuals with Dry Eye Disease.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- In situ spatial transcriptomics reveals novel markers of the limbal stem cell niche and ocular surface epithelia.Stem cell reports · 2026Article
- Macrophage Extracellular Vesicles: Therapeutic Strategies for Corneal Fibrosis in Rare Diseases.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- Deep learning-based segmentation and density estimation of corneal nerves and dendritic cells from In Vivo confocal microscopy images.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Layer-Specific Proteomic Profiling of the Human Cornea Reveals Insights Into Structure and Biological Function.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- Immune cell dynamics and cytokine regulation in cornea and transplantation.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Altered Corneal T-Cell Motility and Sensory Nerve Features in Older Adults With Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Article
- Proposed Nomenclature for Landmarks in Anterior-Segment OCT: The APOSTEL-AS Panel Consensus.JAMA ophthalmology · 2025Article
- Distribution and dynamics of motile immune cells near the inner limiting membrane in the living human eye.Biomedical optics express · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The healthy human cornea is a uniquely transparent sensory tissue where immune responses are tightly controlled to preserve vision. The cornea contains immune cells that are widely presumed to be intraepithelial dendritic cells (DCs). Corneal immune cells have diverse cellular morphologies and morphological alterations are used as a marker of inflammation and injury. Based on our imaging of corneal T cells in mice, we hypothesized that many human corneal immune cells commonly defined as DCs are intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs). To investigate this, we developed functional in vivo confocal microscopy (Fun-IVCM) to investigate cell dynamics in the human corneal epithelium and stroma. We show that many immune cells resident in the healthy human cornea are T cells. These corneal IELs are characterized by rapid, persistent motility and interact with corneal DCs and sensory nerves. Imaging deeper into the corneal stroma, we show that crawling macrophages and rare motile T cells patrol the tissue. Furthermore, we identify altered immune cell behaviors in response to short-term contact lens wear (acute inflammatory stimulus), as well as in individuals with allergy (chronic inflammatory stimulus) that was modulated by therapeutic intervention. These findings redefine current understanding of immune cell subsets in the human cornea and reveal how resident corneal immune cells respond and adapt to chronic and acute stimuli.
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Registered trials
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.