Onchocerciasis: Experimental models of ocular disease

Abstract

Onchocerciasis is a leading cause of blindness in equatorial Africa and in endemic regions in Central America. Understanding of the pathologic processes involved in onchocercal eyedisease and of the role of immunopathologic mechanisms in its development has been substantially limited by the shortage of eyes for histologic study and by the lack of a naturally occurring animal model. The inoculation of microfilariae of Onchocerca species into the eyes of laboratory animals may reproduce selected aspects of onchocercal eye disease, such as punctate keratitis. Studies in these models support the hypothesis that immunopathologic mechanisms mediated by IgE antibody are involved in the development ..