Evaluation of staphylococcal enterotoxin-specific IgE antibody in tears in allergic keratoconjunctival disorders.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the presence of staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) and B (SEB)-specific IgE antibodies in tears from patients with allergic conjunctival disorders.


METHODS
The study included 8 eyes of 4 patients with perennial allergic conjunctivitis (PAC), 14 eyes of 7 patients with vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC), 12 eyes of 6 patients with atopic keratoconjunctivitis (AKC), and 10 eyes of 10 healthy volunteers as controls. Tears were sampled by the method of the Schirmer test I. Sampled tears were eluted and SEA- and SEB-specific IgE antibodies were analyzed by the AlaSTAT-IMMULIZE method.


RESULTS
SEA-specific IgE antibodies in tears were positive in 9 of 14 eyes in VKC patients and in 1 of 12 eyes in AKC patients. SEB-specific IgE antibodies in tears were positive in 7 of 14 eyes in VKC patients and in 2 of 12 eyes in AKC patients. Values for antibodies were higher in patients with severe clinical findings. However, all the cases in the normal control and the PAC groups were negative for both antibodies.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data strongly suggested that staphylococcal enterotoxin may cause type I allergy, and may be an exacerbating factor for vernal keratoconjunctivitis and atopic keratoconjunctivitis.
Shoji
Jun
J
Department of Ophthalmology, Nihon University School of Medicine, Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan.
Kato
Hiroshi
H
Kitazawa
Minoru
M
Inada
Noriko
N
Sawa
Mitsuru
M
D000328:Adult; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003233:Conjunctivitis, Allergic / Q000276:immunology*; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000032:analysis* / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000378:metabolism*; D013666:Tears / Q000276:immunology*
D004768:Enterotoxins; D007073:Immunoglobulin E