• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.65-73
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of age in the response to long-term overnight orthokeratology (OK) lens wearing. Methods: Among volunteers, ninety-five healthy subjects who had no eye diseases and could wear OK contact lens at least for 8 hours every day were divided into three groups children, youngsters and young adults. Unaided logMAR visual acuity, refractive error, apical corneal radius, corneal asphericity and central corneal thickness were measured with different period; before and after one day, one week, two weeks, one month, three months and six months of OK lens wear. Paired student t-test, ANOVA analysis and Pearson correlation were used with a critical p value of 0.05 for statistical analysis. Results: All groups showed statistically significant (p<0.001) improvement in unaided visual acuity, a trend for flattening in the apical corneal radius, decrease in central corneal thickness and less prolate after OK lens wear. The child group showed significantly rapid change (p<0.001) in visual acuity, and apical corneal radius showed that they reached the targeted refractive change earlier compared with youngster and adult groups. The visual effect of OK lens was significantly related with the change in central corneal thickness after long-term OK lens wear, especially in child and youngster group, and central corneal thickness were highly correlated with the targeted refractive change. Conclusions: Visual acuity change is statistically correlated with the central corneal thickness change, which is highly correlated with targeted refractive change in the long-term orthokeratology and younger lens wearers showed a rapid response to OK lens wear, suggesting a reduced epithelial response with increasing age. The results found this study extends our understanding and development in the long-term orthokeratology.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.217-223
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• 2019

Acanthamoeba castellanii has ubiquitous distribution and causes primary acanthamoebic keratitis (AK). AK is a common disease in contact lens wearers and results in permanent visual impairment or blindness. In this study, we observed the cytopathic effect, in vitro cytotoxicity, and secretion pattern of cytokines in human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs) induced by A. castellanii trophozoites and/or cysts. Morphological observation revealed that panked dendritic HCECs co-cultured with amoeba cysts had changed into round shape and gradually died. Such changes were more severe in co-culture with cyst than those of co-cultivation with trophozoites. In vitro cytotoxicity assay revealed the highest cytotoxicity to HCECs in the co-culture system with amoeba cysts. A. castellanii induced the expression of $IL-1{\alpha}$, IL-6, IL-8, and CXCL1 in HCECs. Secreted levels of $IL-1{\alpha}$, IL-6, and IL-8 in HCECs co-cultured with both trophozoites and cysts were increased at an early incubation time (3 and 6 hr). These results suggested that cytopathic changes and pro-inflammatory cytokines release of HCECs in response to A. castellanii, especially amoebic cysts, are an important mechanism for AK development.