Mouse Models of Herpes Simplex Keratitis in the MICRON Literature

About the MICRON Research Literature

These research pages organize published studies using MICRON imaging systems by animal species and the disease or condition investigated.

All publication counts and figures reflect the complete indexed research collection.

Explore related studies through the MICRON Research Hubs or search the complete publication collection in the reSEARCH portal.

Understanding Herpes Simplex Keratitis

Herpes simplex keratitis is corneal disease caused by herpes simplex virus, and its forms differ in what drives them:

• Replication of virus in the epithelium produces the dendritic ulcer
• The stromal disease that scars and vascularizes the cornea is driven substantially by the host response to the infection rather than by direct viral killing of cells alone

Much of what is known about that immune component, including the contribution of T-cell responses to stromal damage and the neovascular and corneal-nerve changes that accompany it, was established in mouse corneal infection, which is part of why a model of this disease can address the human mechanism rather than an analogue of it.

Herpes Simplex Keratitis in Experimental Research

Two features of the human infection are reproduced:

• After ocular inoculation the virus establishes latency in the trigeminal ganglion
• Reactivation can be provoked experimentally

Latency and recurrence are available as experimental endpoints rather than as clinical history.

The tissue transfers less directly. A mouse cornea is thinner and differently layered than a human one and its endothelium retains proliferative capacity, so stromal and endothelial outcomes are read in a structure that is not a scaled-down human cornea. Many conventional primary-infection mouse models begin with a defined inoculum applied to a scarified cornea in an immunologically naive animal, whereas human stromal disease is commonly recurrent after infection acquired long before. Recurrent mouse models address part of that gap by experimentally inducing viral reactivation.

Endpoints that require a responding patient, such as visual acuity, pain and photophobia, are without a direct counterpart, and outcome in the animal depends on the viral strain and inoculum chosen as well as on the species.

Mouse Models of Herpes Simplex Keratitis

The mouse carries most of this work.

Transgenic and knockout lines allow a pathway to be removed or overexpressed, and cost, availability, short generation time and a large body of background data reinforce the choice.

A genetic manipulation constrains rather than isolates a mechanism: developmental compensation and pleiotropy remain possible.

Published MICRON Research: Herpes Simplex Keratitis in Mice

This page lists 4 papers from the MICRON literature, published 2013 to 2022, that study herpes simplex keratitis in mice.

Of these publications:

• 3 studies used mice as the primary herpes simplex keratitis disease model.
• 1 study used healthy animals to assess pharmacokinetics, drug delivery, or tolerability.

Scope of the literature collection: Publication counts reflect studies identified and indexed in the MICRON research corpus. This collection is not intended to represent an exhaustive review of all published herpes simplex keratitis research.

Which imaging and experimental techniques are used in these studies?

Technique counts are paper-level co-occurrences and do not necessarily indicate that a technique was applied to the focal species or focal disease model.

Capabilities and Limitations of Imaging Techniques

A summary of what each imaging technique listed above can measure, the information it provides, and its limitations in research applications.

Optical Coherence Tomography

Optical coherence tomography provides high-resolution, cross-sectional images of ocular tissues in the living eye, allowing researchers to visualize structures at different depths. OCT is particularly useful for measuring tissue thickness, identifying structural abnormalities, and assessing the location and extent of tissue changes.

As a non-invasive imaging technique, OCT enables repeated measurements in the same eye over time, supporting longitudinal studies of disease progression and treatment response. Although OCT provides detailed structural information, it does not directly measure cellular activity or visual function. Tissue that appears structurally normal may still have functional abnormalities, making OCT a valuable companion to functional assessments such as electroretinography (ERG).

Topical Ophthalmic Drug Delivery

A compound applied as drops to the ocular surface. It is non-invasive and repeatable, so it supports frequent dosing without a procedure for each dose. What the route has to establish depends on the target: for an ocular-surface target, residence time and penetration into the surface tissue are the main barriers; for an intraocular anterior-segment target, the compound must cross ocular-surface and corneal or conjunctival barriers and reach an intraocular concentration sufficient for the experiment; for a posterior-segment target, additional ocular barriers separate the surface from the target and posterior-segment exposure is harder to establish.

Which MICRON systems and add-ons appear?

Which strains and genetic lines are used?

What other conditions are recorded on the same papers?

Which MICRON configurations appear in this work?

Configurations recorded in these papers, and the techniques recorded alongside them.

The papers

Browse all hubs at MICRON Research Hubs. The full corpus is searchable in the reSEARCH portal.