Photo Credit: Giotto
Dry eye disease (DED) is a prevalent chronic eye disease characterized by an aberrant inflammatory response in ocular surface mucosa. The immunological alterations underlying DED remain largely unknown. In this study, we employed single-cell transcriptome sequencing of conjunctival tissue from environment-induced DED mice to investigate multicellular ecosystem and functional changes at different DED stages. Our results revealed an epithelial subtype with fibroblastic characteristics and proinflammatory effects emerging in the acute phase of DED. We also found that Th1, Th17, and Treg cells were the dominant CD4 T-cell types involved in regulating immune responses and identified three distinct macrophage subtypes, with the CD72CD11c subtype enhancing chronic inflammation. Furthermore, bulk transcriptome analysis of video display terminal (VDT)-induced DED consistently suggested the presence of the proinflammatory epithelial subtype in human conjunctiva. Our findings have uncovered a DED-associated proinflammatory microenvironment in the conjunctiva, centered around epithelial cells, involving interactions with macrophages and CD4 T cells, which deepens our understanding of ocular surface mucosal immune responses during DED progression.Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.
