This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Alan D. Proia, PhD; Gary N. Foulks, MD; Fred P. Sanfilippo, MD,PhD

Arch Ophthalmol. 1985;103(11):1669-1672.

Abstract
• A 65-year-old woman developed chronic redness of both eyes, and, over the ensuing 2 years, she had progressive conjunctival scarring with symblepharon formation. Other mucosal surfaces were not involved. A conjunctival biopsy specimen 12 months following onset of her disease showed areas of epithelial separation from the basement membrane zone as well as subepithelial chronic inflammation and scarring. Two years later, another conjunctival biopsy specimen showed granular deposition of IgA and C3 along the epithelial basement membrane zone using direct immunofluorescent staining. Electron microscopy confirmed the presence of deposits that were morphologically consistent with antigen-antibody complexes. These findings suggest that antigen-antibody (IgA) immune-complex deposition may provide an alternative pathogenetic mechanism to basement membrane zone autoantibody formation for development of progressive conjunctival scarring.

Author Affiliations
From the Departments of Ophthalmology (Drs Proia and Foulks) and Pathology (Drs Proia and Sanfilippo), Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication July 8, 1985.

Reprint requests to Duke University Eye Center, Box 3802, Durham, NC 27710 (DrProia).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?