Background: Atopic keratoconjunctivitis (AKC) is a chronic allergic conjunctival disease. However, a mouse model of AKC to investigate the underlying mechanism of the therapeutic agents and estimate their efficacy has not been established. We recently generated mice in which Ikk2 is specifically deleted in facial skin fibroblasts and found that these mice spontaneously develop atopic dermatitis (AD)-like facial skin inflammation and scratching behaviors; thus, we named them facial AD with scratching (FADS) mice.
Objective: We sought to evaluate whether the ocular lesions that FADS mice spontaneously develop are similar to those of patients with AKC and to estimate the efficacy of topical treatments with tacrolimus and betamethasone for FADS mice by using tear periostin, a novel biomarker for allergic conjunctival disease.
Methods: FADS mice, in which Ikk2 is deleted in dermal fibroblasts, were generated by crossing female Ikk2Flox/Flox mice to male Nestincre; Ikk2Flox/+ mice. We conducted histologic analysis of the ocular lesions in FADS mice. Furthermore, we measured periostin in the tears collected from FADS mice untreated or treated with tacrolimus or betamethasone.
Results: The FADS mice exhibited severe blepharitis and scratch behaviors for their faces. In these mice, corneal epithelium and stroma showed hyperplasia and infiltration of eosinophils, mast cells, and TH2/TC2 cells. Periostin was significantly expressed in the lesions and tear periostin was upregulated. Betamethasone showed more suppressive effects than did tacrolimus on severe corneal lesions and increased tear periostin level.
Conclusions: The FADS mouse is a novel mouse model of AKC and is useful to examine the therapeutic effects of anti-AKC agents.
Keywords: Allergic inflammation; atopic keratoconjunctivitis; drug treatment; mouse model; tear periostin.
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