The cornea is the only tissue where sensory nerves and immune cells can be non-invasively imaged in living humans, using high-resolution in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM). Corneal IVCM provides unique capacity to assess the immunological effect of disease and exogenous factors on an intact physiological system.

Our team has recently developed a novel method, we term Functional-IVCM (Fun-IVCM), to dynamically track corneal immune cell subsets in living humans.

Afforded by the unique transparency of the corneal tissue, using Fun-IVCM we have captured the first-ever live cell imaging of corneal T cells, dendritic cells and macrophages in response to immune-active stimuli in humans. This research has redefined understanding of the resident corneal immune cell populations, including identifying the presence of T cells in healthy human corneas, and demonstrated changes to their dynamics in acute and chronic inflammation.

Changes to corneal immune cell morphology and behaviour, captured using Fun-IVCM show utility to act as biomarkers of ocular and systemic disease, and inform the development of targeted therapeutics for these conditions.

Read more about the Fun-IVCM method, and its application in the clinical evaluation of immune status, in our recent publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (July 2023).