Figure 6.

RTX treatment of mice to deplete TRPV1 nociceptors attenuates contact lens-induced corneal immune cell responses at 24 hours involving MHC class II+ cells (A, B), CD45+ cells (C, D) and γδ T cells (E, F). RTX also reduced baseline numbers of resident MHC class II+ cells but did not affect CD45+ or γδ T cells. (A, C, E) Quantification of corneal MHC class II+ cells (A), CD45+ cells (C) and γδ T cells (E) after 24 hours of lens wear versus no lens wear contralateral eyes each with PBS or RTX treatment. * P < 0.05, *** P = 0.001, **** P < 0.0001, ns = not significant [One-way ANOVA with Tukey's multiple comparisons test]. (B, D, F) Immunofluorescence imaging of lens wearing corneas (24 hours) after PBS treatment (left panels) versus RTX treatment (right panels). MHC class II+ cells (B), CD45+ cells (D), or γδ T cells (F). Respective immune cells (red). Corneal nerves were labeled with β-tubulin III (green). Scale bar = 70 µm.