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2010 OMIG, Abstract 19

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BSS Plus® can alter the antimicrobial activity of human lysozyme against S. epidermidis
K.E. Griswold1, H.L. Jewell1, M.E. Zegans2
1Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, 2Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology, Dept. of Surgery (Ophthalmology), Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH

Purpose: Lysozyme catalyses hydrolysis of peptidoglycan in the bacterial cell wall and thus is an important component of the innate immune response in the eye and elsewhere in the body.  Previous work has shown that the significant alteration of the activity of human lysozyme under different ionic conditions, but this has not been studied with respect to conditions often used in eye surgery.  We present our studies of alteration of human lysozyme activity in the presence of the BSS Plus® solution.
Methods: All genetic, biochemical and microbiologic assays were performed following previously published protocols.  Clinical isolates were obtained from Dartmouth Medical School. Human lysozyme from Sigma Aldrich.
Results:  BSS Plus® inhibited lysozyme-mediated killing of both laboratory and clinical strains of S. epidermidis. Maximum inhibition was observed at clinically relevant BSS Plus® concentrations.  Rabbit aqueous was also tested for lysozyme activity and then progressively diluted in BSS Plus® and these results will also be presented.
Conclusions:  Our results indicate that the commonly use surgical intraocular fluid BSS Plus® can inhibit the activity of human lysozyme.  This may transiently reduce the antimicrobial activity of the aqueous in eyes undergoing surgery. Thus, post operative intraocular infection may be influenced by the effect of aqueous replacement fluids on components of the intraocular innate immune response such as lysozyme.

Disclosure code: NIH funding.


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