Purpose

To evaluate the density and distribution of conjunctival goblet cells in mice without clinical evidence of ocular surface diseases.

Methods

Immediately after euthanasia of C57BL/6 wild-type mice, the eyes including eyelids were removed and fixed in paraformaldehyde. Entire eyeballs and eyelids were cut in series along the sagittal axis from nasal to temporal on a microtome and then stained with Periodic Acid-Schiff acid to visualize the goblet cells. At each section stained in this way, the conjunctival goblet cells of the entire upper and lower lid conjunctiva were counted by light microscopy. Additional (transmission electron microscopy) (TEM)-Analysis on ultrathin sections was performed to evaluate morphological differences.

Results

The total number of conjunctival goblet cells differs markedly between individual animals. Categorisation into upper eyelid (UL) and lower eyelid (LL) and into regions (nasal, middle, temporal) revealed a significant increase of goblet cells from nasal to temporal in the UL and a significant decrease in the LL.

Conclusion

The distribution of conjunctival goblet cells in mice differs considerably from humans and between individual animals. Therefore, precise selection of sampling and methods are needed to obtain comparable data. We recommend to use the middle region of the conjunctiva of UL/LL for goblet cell studies in mice. These findings are of particular interest for dry eye mouse models as well as pharmacological studies on mice with influence on their goblet cells.

中文翻译：

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小鼠结膜杯状细胞分布

目的

评估无眼表疾病临床证据的小鼠结膜杯状细胞的密度和分布。

方法

在对 C57BL/6 野生型小鼠实施安乐死后，立即取出包括眼睑在内的眼睛并固定在多聚甲醛中。在切片机上沿矢状轴从鼻部到颞部连续切割整个眼球和眼睑，然后用高碘酸-席夫酸染色以观察杯状细胞。在以这种方式染色的每个切片中，通过光学显微镜对整个上下眼睑结膜的结膜杯状细胞进行计数。对超薄切片进行附加（透射电子显微镜）（TEM）分析以评估形态差异。

结果

结膜杯状细胞的总数在个体动物之间显着不同。分类为上眼睑 (UL) 和下眼睑 (LL) 以及区域（鼻部、中部、颞部）显示 UL 中从鼻部到颞部的杯状细胞显着增加，而 LL 则显着减少。

结论

小鼠结膜杯状细胞的分布与人类和个体动物之间有很大不同。因此，需要精确选择采样和方法以获得可比数据。我们建议使用 UL/LL 结膜的中间区域进行小鼠杯状细胞研究。这些发现对于干眼小鼠模型以及对影响其杯状细胞的小鼠的药理学研究特别感兴趣。