Publication: Epithelial component and intraepithelial lymphocytes of conjunctiva-associated lymphoid tissue in healthy children
Authors
Cano-Suárez, Magnolia T. ; Reinoso, Roberto ; Martín, Carmen ; Calonge, Margarita ; Vallelado, Ana I. ; Fernández, Itziar ; Corell, Alfredo
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Publisher
Universidad de Murcia, Departamento de Biologia Celular e Histiologia
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.14670/HH-18-385
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
Abstract
. Conjunctiva-associated lymphoid tissue
(CALT) plays a key role in protecting the eye surface by
initiating and regulating immune responses. The aim of
this study was to investigate in healthy children the
proportion of intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs), the
degree of viability and/or apoptosis and cell proliferation
in three different topographic areas of the conjunctiva.
Superior tarsal, superior bulbar, and inferior tarsalbulbarfornix conjunctival cells were collected by brush
cytology (BC) from 24 healthy paediatric subjects (13
boys and 11 girls, mean age 6±2 years) who were to
undergo strabismus correction surgery under general
anaesthesia. Subsequently, these cells were analysed
phenotypically and functionally by flow cytometry (FC).
Flow cytometry analysis showed that not all the cells
obtained by BC were of the epithelial lineage, but that
there was a population of CD45+ cells (IELs) regularly
present in the conjunctiva of healthy children. These
IELs were mostly T-lymphocytes (CD3+) and Blymphocytes (CD19+), with higher levels of Tlymphocytes (CD3+) in the upper areas than in the
inferior tarsal-bulbar-fornix, where the highest levels of
B-lymphocytes (CD19+) were found. In the apoptosis
assay, two groups of cell populations were differentiated
by cell size and complexity (cytoplasmic granularity),
with more complex cells predominating in the upper
areas of the conjunctiva and less complex cells being
more abundant in the inferior tarsal-bulbar-fornix.
Finally, the proliferative capacity of the conjunctival
epithelium was significantly higher in the upper tarsal
zone than in the rest of the zones analysed. These results
suggest that the epithelial component and the IELs of
CALT are also regularly present in the conjunctiva of the
healthy child, varying in phenotype, viability and cell
proliferation according to the different conjunctival
regions analysed, which could lead us to believe that
each conjunctival zone plays a different, specific role in
the regulation of the immune response at the ocular
level.
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