Journal article

Neuroimmune crosstalk in the cornea: The role of immune cells in corneal nerve maintenance during homeostasis and inflammation

M Wu, LJ Hill, LE Downie, HR Chinnery

Progress in Retinal and Eye Research | Published : 2022

Abstract

In the cornea, resident immune cells are in close proximity to sensory nerves, consistent with their important roles in the maintenance of nerves in both homeostasis and inflammation. Using in vivo confocal microscopy in humans, and ex vivo immunostaining and fluorescent reporter mice to visualize corneal sensory nerves and immune cells, remarkable progress has been made to advance our understanding of the physical and functional interactions between corneal nerves and immune cells. In this review, we summarize and discuss recent studies relating to corneal immune cells and sensory nerves, and their interactions in health and disease. In particular, we consider how disrupted corneal nerve ax..

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council


Funding Acknowledgements

Funding support provided by the National Health and Medical Research Council (HRC, APP1126540) and the Australian Government Research Training Program (MW) . The authors wish to acknowledge Dr. Alexis Ceecee Britten-Jones for providing the IVCM images in Fig. 2, and to Dr. Cecilia Naranjo Golborne, Dr Helen Jiao and Stephanie Spi-ridonidis for their contributions to data collection. The authors acknowledge the Florey Advanced Microscopy Facility at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience & Mental Health Facility for provision of instrumentation, training and general support, and the Biological Op-tical Microscopy Platform for assistance with 3D image analysis.