A study of the expression of IL-1 beta on the ocular surface in dry eye patients

Abstract

Objective To study the expression of IL-1 beta on the ocular surface of dry eye patients and to study its correlation with symptoms and signs of dry eye; to investigate IL-1 beta's effect on dry eye pathogenesis.Methods Clinical trials.In this case-control study,30 dry eye patients (60 eyes) and 15 age-and gender-matched control subjects (30 eyes) without symptoms or signs of dry eye were selected from patients who had been treated in our hospital from September 2012 to February 2013.All subjects underwent full ophthalmologic examinations (including OSDI questionnaire,Schirrner's test (SIT),tear break-up time (BUT),corneal fluorescence staining and conjunctival lissamine green staining).Impression cytology was used to collect conjunctiva epithelial cells from dry eye patients and controls,then these samples were stained by IHC reaction to detect the expression of IL-1 beta by real-time PCR.Results The average OSDI questionnaire scores for the case group and controls were 24.1±2.2 and 14.3±1.3.SIT scores were 4.13±1.68 mm and 10.53± 0.74 mm.BUT times were 4.17±1.10 s and 8.80±1.21 s.Corneal fluorescence staining results were 4.3±1.5 and 0.6±0.5.Conjunctival lissamine green staining results were 5.7±2.0 and 1.9±1.4.There were significant differences between dry eye patients and control subjects (t=22.23,-19.88,-18.20,12.85,9.62,P＜0.05).The average expression of IL-1 beta in the case group and controls was 0.65± 0.37 and 0.22±0.06.There were significant differences between dry eye patients and control subjects (t=6.31,P＜0.05).The expression of IL-1 beta was positively correlated with scores on the OSDI questionnaire (r=0.81,P＜0.05),corneal fluorescence staining (r=0.58,P＜0.05),and conjunctival lissamine green staining (r=0.48,P＜0.05),and was negatively correlated with BUT (r=-0.45,P＜0.05) and SIT (r=-0.43,P＜0.05).With IHC staining,brown particles could be seen in the conjunctiva cells in patients with dry eye,but not in the controls.Conclusion IL-1β as an inflammatory mediator is involved not only in dry eye disease,but is also associated with the severity of dry eye and damage on the ocular surface. Key words: Interleukin-1 beta; Xerophthalmia; Impression cytology; Real-time polymerase chain reaction