Presence of bar-shaped nuclear chromatin in cell samples from the conjunctiva

A study was performed on 60 patients, of whom 20 had the dry eye syndrome, 20 had had cataract surgery and 20 belonged to a control group. Twenty percent of the dry eye group and 45% of the post-cataract surgery group had cells with so-called bar-shaped nuclear chromatin (bar-chromatin cells) with a morphology basically akin to those of Anitschkow nuclear changes found in cardiac tissue. Bar-chromatin cells were found in scrapings from different parts of the conjunctiva, mostly in intermediate squamous cells and rarely in goblet cells. However, these nuclear changes were infrequent in the control group. Since the bar-chromatin cells were much more frequent in patients with diseased eyes, we concluded that the findings were possibly of a regenerative nature.