RESEARCH ARTICLE
Expression of Filaggrin in Normal and Keratinized Conjunctiva
Anne Sofie Kragegaard Lund1, 3, Steffen Heegaard1, 2, Jan Ulrik Prause1, Peter Bjerre Toft2, Lone Skov*, 3
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2012Volume: 6
First Page: 137
Last Page: 140
Publisher ID: TOOPHTJ-6-137
DOI: 10.2174/1874364101206010137
Article History:
Received Date: 23/6/2012Revision Received Date: 22/10/2012
Acceptance Date: 24/10/2012
Electronic publication date: 28/12/2012
Collection year: 2012
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Purpose:
We wanted to investigate filaggrin expression in normal conjunctiva and in conjunctiva exposed to different degrees of mechanical stress. Mechanical stress results in parakeratinization of the conjunctiva. If filaggrin is expressed in the milder forms of parakeratinization, it might be used as a sensitive marker of mechanical stress.
Methods:
Immunohistochemical staining using antibodies to filaggrin was performed on paraffin sections of normal human conjunctiva, and on conjunctiva with different degrees of mechanical conjunctival stress.
Results:
Filaggrin was not expressed in the normal conjunctiva, nor in conjunctiva with milder forms of mechanical stress. Intense staining of filaggrin was seen in the conjunctiva of a patient with Stevens-Johnson syndrome, and marked expression of filaggrin was found in the conjunctival epithelium of a patient with moderate dysplasia of the conjunctiva.
Conclusion:
Filaggrin is not a sensitive marker of mechanical stress; it is, however, expressed in some moderate and severe forms of parakeratinization of the conjunctiva.
