The effects of diabetes and high-fat diet on polymodal nociceptor and cold thermoreceptor nerve terminal endings in the corneal epithelium

Abstract

PURPOSE. There is a substantial body of evidence indicating that corneal sensory innervation is affected by pathology in a range of diseases. However, there are no published studies that have directly assessed whether the nerve fiber density of the different subpopulations of corneal sensory neurons are differentially affected. The present study explored the possibility that the intraepithelial nerve fiber density of corneal polymodal nociceptors and cold thermoreceptors are differentially affected in mice fed with a high-fat high cholesterol (HFHC; 21% fat, 2% cholesterol) diet and in those that also have diabetes. METHODS. The mice were fed the HFHC diet for the duration of the experiment ..