title: Evaluation of staphylococcal enterotoxin-specific IgE antibody in tears in allergic keratoconjunctival disorders.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Nihon University School of Medicine, Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shoji
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kitazawa
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Inada
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sawa
mesh_terms: 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*
chemical_list: D004768:Enterotoxins; D007073:Immunoglobulin E