Abstract
Purpose: To assess the impact of Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) and amniotic membrane transplantation (AMT) in corneal explants on presence of two multifunctional endogenous lectins, i.e. galectins-1 and -7.Methods: Ten corneal explants from AK patients (five with previous AMT and five controls without this treatment) and seven specimens of disease-free control cornea were processed by indirect fluorescent immunohistochemistry.Results: Immunostaining for both galectins was obtained in the epithelium, stroma and the endothelial layer of all controls, with the strongest positivity in the epithelium. Significantly decreased intensity for galectin-1 was recorded in the epithelium of corneal explants from patients with AK and AMT. The signal for galectin-7 was significantly decreased in the epithelium of AK patients and normalized after AMT.Conclusions: AMT has a marked impact on presence of the two galectins in opposite directions, encouraging complete profiling for this family of endogenous effectors.
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