Discipline of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide South Australia, Australia.
South Australian Institute of Ophthalmology, Royal Adelaide Hospital, South Australia, Australia.
Transl Vis Sci Technol. 2022 Nov 1;11(11):10. doi: 10.1167/tvst.11.11.10.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether rodent lacrimal glands (LGs) represent a suitable surrogate for human tissue in bio-engineering research, we undertook a meticulous histological and histochemical comparison of these two tissues.
Histological techniques and immunohistochemistry were used to compare the structure of adult human and rat LG tissues and the expression of key functional tissue elements.
Compared with humans, the rat LG is comprised of much more densely packed acini which are devoid of an obvious central lumen. Myoepithelial, fibroblasts, dendritic cells, T cells, and putative progenitor cells are present in both tissues. However, human LG is replete with epithelium expressing cytokeratins 8 and 18, whereas rat LG epithelium does not express cytokeratin 8. Furthermore, human LG expresses aquaporins (AQPs) 1, 3, and 5, whereas rat LG expresses AQPs 1, 4, and 5. Additionally, mast cells were identified in the rat but not the human LGs and large numbers of plasma cells were detected in the human LGs but only limited numbers were present in the rat LGs.
The cellular composition of the human and rat LGs is similar, although there is a marked difference in the actual histo-architectural arrangement of the tissue. Further variances in the epithelial cytokeratin profile, in tissue expression of AQPs and in mast cell and plasma cell infiltration, may prove significant.
The rat LG can serve as a useful surrogate for the human equivalent, but there exist specific tissue differences meaning that caution must be observed when translating results to patients.
本研究旨在确定啮齿动物的泪腺（LG）是否可以作为生物工程研究中人类组织的替代物，为此我们对这两种组织进行了细致的组织学和组织化学比较。
采用组织学技术和免疫组织化学方法比较成年人类和大鼠 LG 组织的结构以及关键功能组织成分的表达。
与人类相比，大鼠 LG 由更加密集的腺泡组成，这些腺泡缺乏明显的中央腔。肌上皮细胞、成纤维细胞、树突状细胞、T 细胞和潜在的祖细胞存在于这两种组织中。然而，人 LG 充满了表达细胞角蛋白 8 和 18 的上皮细胞，而大鼠 LG 上皮细胞不表达细胞角蛋白 8。此外，人 LG 表达水通道蛋白（AQPs）1、3 和 5，而大鼠 LG 表达 AQP1、4 和 5。此外，在大鼠 LG 中鉴定出肥大细胞，但在人 LG 中未鉴定出，在人 LG 中检测到大量浆细胞，但在大鼠 LG 中仅存在有限数量的浆细胞。
尽管组织的实际组织架构排列存在明显差异，但人类和大鼠 LG 的细胞组成相似。上皮细胞角蛋白谱、组织中 AQP 的表达以及肥大细胞和浆细胞浸润的进一步差异可能具有重要意义。
大鼠 LG 可以作为人类的有用替代物，但存在特定的组织差异，因此在将结果转化为患者时必须谨慎。
