Figure 1.

Impact of tissue paper blotting on corneal susceptibility to fluorescein staining and infection. Fluorescein was added to wild-type (C57BL/6) corneas immediately after the blotting procedure. Blotted corneas showed extensive fluorescein staining (A). Confocal microscopy z-stack of blotted and fluorescein-stained mouse cornea showed fluorescein penetration of the corneal epithelium and stroma to a depth of approximately 100 μM (B). Other blotted corneas were immediately inoculated with GFP-expressing P. aeruginosa strain PAO1. Blotting did not enable susceptibility to infection at 24 hours after infection (C).