Immunohistochemical detection of estrogen and progesterone receptor in human cornea

Objective: For treatment of postmenopausal keratoconjunctivitis sicca hormo ne therapy is favored by some clinicians. The likely morphological basis as sessing the hormone receptor status in the human cornea has not been perfor med. Immunohistochemical staining methods provide the opportunity to evalua te the hormone receptor content within the histologic compartments of the c ornea. The aim of our study was to assess and localize immunohistochemical hormone receptor staining in the human cornea. Methods: Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded specimens of three pre- and three postmenopausal women we re assessed for localization of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone rec eptor (PR) expression with established immunohistochemical hormone receptor staining methods. Results: No nuclear staining reaction was found in the e pi- and endothelial layers of the corneas. The stroma of the corneas showed no immunohistochemical staining reaction in all cases. We found cytoplasma tic PR staining of the endothelial layer in two cases. Conclusions: We foun d no morphological basis in the human cornea for the use of topical steroid hormone treatment in postmenopausal keratoconjunctivitis sicca. Hormone re ceptor expression in the conjunctiva or in the lacrimal gland may have an i mpact in some patients showing relief of symptoms in postmenopausal dry eye syndrome. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.