Table 3.

Effect of High-Fat Diet and High-Fat/Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetes in Rats on Innervation of Subbasal Layer of the Cornea by Corneal Confocal Microscopy, Innervation of the Corneal Epithelium, and Innervation of the Inferior Whorl and Periphery of the Cornea In Vitro by Standard Confocal Microscopy

Determination	Control	High Fat	Diabetic
Corneal nerve fiber length, mm/mm2	4.8 ± 0.3	3.3 ± 0.2*	2.8 ± 0.2*
Corneal epithelial nerve fibers, profiles/mm	9.5 ± 0.9	7.4 ± 0.5*	7.1 ± 0.6*
Corneal nerve fiber length, μm/μm2
Inferior whorl	0.080 ± 0.008	0.042 ± 0.010*	0.042 ± 0.003*
Periphery	0.119 ± 0.007	0.107 ± 0.014	0.124 ± 0.008

The experimental groups were fed a high-fat diet for 40 weeks with or without hyperglycemia for 32 weeks. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM. * P < 0.05 compared to control. The number of experimental animals in each group ranged from 8 to 10.