Experimental marginal corneal infiltrates.

Marginal infiltrates arise from a wide variety of causes and according to the recent literature occur most commonly in association with chronic staphylococcal blepharitis. Marginal infiltrates often have a crescent form or coalesce to form a complete ring concentric to the limbus. On the other hand, the well-formed manifestation of an immunological process in the cornea, the so-called immunological corneal ring, often strikingly resembles marginal infiltration in man (Germuth I959). This has given rise to the presumption that marginal infiltrate, when associated with staphylococcal lid inflammation, is a result of hypersensitivity reaction in which staphlyo-antigen plays an important role (Thygeson, I969). Hogan, Diaz-Bonnet, Okumoto, and Kimara (I962) tested this hypothesis experimentally. Their animals were immunized with subcutaneous staphylococcal antigen with the addition of Freund's adjuvant. Immunological rings developed clinically with marked uveitis. Microscopical examination showed these infiltrates to be composed of neutrophils. The results of these experiments are very important in the studies of staphylococcal corneal disease, but the clinical appearance differs from that of a marginal infiltrate in man, because in human disease the antigen enters the organism not subcutaneously but through the cornea and/or conjunctiva, so that there is no marked uveal reaction. Also Freund's adjuvant affects the potency of the staphylococcal antigen. The experiment presented in this paper was undertaken in an effort to produce an immunological ring using staphylo-antigen without the help of Freund's adjuvant and introducing it directly into the cornea.