Mouse Models of 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 Keratitis

Keratitis is inflammation of the cornea. In health the cornea is transparent and avascular, and it is the front refracting surface of the eye, so inflammation there puts at risk both the clarity of the tissue and the optical quality of that surface, whether an episode resolves leaving the cornea clear or leaves it permanently altered.

The causes recognized clinically are heterogeneous, infectious and non-infectious. What an episode does to the tissue is shaped as much by the host response as by the insult that provoked it, which is why the host response is itself a target of experimental manipulation and not merely the background to one.

Keratitis in Experimental Research

What an animal supplies here comes in two shapes. In one it supplies access: the cornea sits on the surface of the eye, so an insult can be delivered at a chosen time and dose, and that same eye can then be examined, imaged and dosed topically without being opened, while the host response to that insult is open to genetic and pharmacological manipulation. In genetic models, a germ-line alteration can produce corneal inflammation without a delivered insult, so the experiment opens without a dated onset and follows keratitis arising on the animal's own course.

What an animal does not supply is the human endpoint, what a person can see through the cornea afterwards and what they feel while it heals. It does not supply the ocular surface environment in which human keratitis arises:

• Lid anatomy, blink rate, tear film and corneal dimensions differ between species
• The contact-lens wear, occupational exposure and injury histories that precede much human disease lack a counterpart in a housed laboratory animal

Mouse Models of 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: Keratitis in Mice

This page lists 7 papers from the MICRON literature, published 2012 to 2024, that study keratitis in mice.

Of these publications:

• 7 studies used mice as the primary keratitis disease model.

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 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.

CRISPR-Based Ocular Gene Editing

Uses a programmable genome-editing system to alter DNA at an endogenous locus rather than adding a separate replacement copy. Depending on the editor and design, it can disrupt, correct or install a sequence, either therapeutically or to create an experimental model. Once a genomic sequence change is established, the edit itself cannot be withdrawn like a dose; where the edit is present from conception, the resulting phenotype also reflects its effects throughout development. Off-target sequence changes are a separate question that structural imaging does not establish.

Fundus Fluorescein Angiography

Fundus fluorescein angiography uses an injected fluorescent dye to visualize blood flow through the retinal and choroidal circulation. Sequential images show how vessels fill, identify areas of reduced or absent perfusion, and reveal dye leakage associated with vascular abnormalities.

This technique is particularly useful for evaluating vascular perfusion, blood-retinal barrier integrity, and abnormal vessel growth. Fluorescein angiography primarily shows dye distribution rather than the surrounding retinal tissue. It provides a two-dimensional (en face) view in which vessels at different depths may overlap. Cross-sectional and cellular structural details require other imaging methods, such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) or optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A). Vascular abnormalities that do not affect dye filling or produce leakage may also remain undetected.

Which MICRON systems and add-ons appear?

Which strains and genetic lines are used?

What other conditions are recorded on the same papers?

The general term records an accepted mention of keratitis without a subtype qualifier. It is not a roll-up: a paper carrying a subtype may or may not also carry the general term, depending on whether an unqualified mention of the family is also recorded elsewhere in the paper.

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.