Animal Models for Meibomian Glands

Here is a full list of published meibomian gland models for Meibomian Gland Disease. The problem is imaging these animal's glands to see if stem cell injection into the glands would repair the process. Looking into ways to do this, but without being able to do a lipiview or lipiscan on mice, it defeats the issue of proving meibomian glands can regenerate with stem cell injections.

PMC full text:

Ophthalmol Ther. 2016 Dec; 5(2): 129–134. Published online 2016 Nov 11. doi:  10.1007/s40123-016-0070-6 Copyright/License ►Request permission to reuse

Table 1

Animal models showing abnormal meibomian glands

Model	Description	Animal	MGD features	Other defectsa
Pikus et al. [13]	Modulation of bone morphogenic protein (BMP)	K14-Noggin transgenic mouse	Abnormal meibomian glands	Abnormal sweat glands, ectopic cilia, distal limb agenesis, hyperpigmentation of claws, interdigital webbing, reduced foot pads
Cascallana et al. [14]	Overexpression of glucocorticoid receptor	K5-GR mice	Lack meibomian glands	Underdeveloped sweat glands, preputial glands; abnormal hair follicles, teeth, and palate
Chang et al. [15]	Elevation of EDAR signalling	Transgenic mice	Enlarged meibomian glands	Excessively branched mammary and salivary glands
Kuramoto et al. [6]	EDARadd gene missense mutation	Sparse-and-wavy (swh) rat	Defective meibomian glands	Defects in the sweat, mammary, preputial, and tongue glands
Cui et al. [16] and Wang et al. [17]	Mutation of X-linked anhidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (EDA) gene	“Tabby” mice	Lack meibomian glands, reduced tear break up times, blepharitis	Corneal neovascularization, ulceration, keratinization, reduced corneal epithelial microvilli, conjunctivitisb
Lin et al. [18]	Mice lacking fatty acid transport protein (FATP)4	Tg (IVL-Fatp4) transgenicmice	Under developed meibomian glands with thickened ducts	Abnormal sebaceous glands, thick skin with defective barrier
McMahon et al. [19]	Mutation in ELOVL4 (enzyme for synthesis of extremely long chain fatty acid)	heterozygous Stgd3 mice, mixed 129SvEv and C57BL6	Protruding meibomian gland orifice, intragland anatomical changes, tooth paste like meibum, intense staining for ELOVL4 in glands	Inability to open eyes fully, increased blink rates
Ikeda et al. [7]	Superoxide dismutase (SOD)-1 knock out	Mice with F1 background	Age related meibomian gland abnormalities (reduced glandular oil-red O staining)	Corneal fluorescein and lissamine staining, reduced tear secretion (phenol red thread readings)
Gilbard 1989 [9]	Cautery of meibomian gland orifice	Rabbits	Increased tear film osmolarity, decrease in conjunctival goblet cells and corneal epithelial glycogen levels	Nil
Nichols et al. [8]	Cautery of meibomian gland orifice	Mice	Meibomian gland ductal engorgement and cyst formation, gland dropout, cheesy glandular inclusions	Nil
Miyake et al. [10]	Lipid limiting diet	HR-1/HR-AD hairless mice	Plugged meibomian gland orifice Hyperkeratinisation of meibomian duct epithelium; loss of acini and gland atrophy	Atopic dermatitis [20]
Reyes et al. [11]	Immunisation with ovalbumin and pertussis, then topical challenge	C57B6 mice	Plugged meibomian gland orifice, presence of neutrophils around meibomian glands	Nil reported

aGenetic models refer to homozygous mice

bNot in mice expressing the EDA-A1 isoform transgene