Objective To analyze the influences of lacrimal secretion and tear film after interferon-alpha therapy in patients with chronic viral hepatitis.Methods Sixty patients with chronic viral hepatitis who would accept the interferon-alpha therapy,including 30 cases of hepatitis B and 30 chronic viral hepatitis C,visited our department of ophthalmology and were enrolled in this study.All cases received eye examination,including medical history,slit lamp examination,corneal fluorescein staining ( FL) ,tear film break-up time ( BUT) and schirmer test before inter-feron-alpha therapy and two months after the therapy.Results In the 60 cases of chronic viral hepatitis,there were 19 dry eye cases (31.67%) and 41 non-dry eye cases (68.33%).In dry eyes group,9 of them (47.37%) were hepatitis B patients and 10 of them were hepatitis C patients (52.63%) .There was significant difference in FL grade (t=-5.288,P<0.05),BUT (t=5.799,P<0.05),Schirmer Ⅰ(t=5.319,P<0.05) test in hepatitis B before and two months after interferon-alpha therapy.Statistical significance had been found before and two months after therapy in FL grade (t=-9.103,P<0.05),BUT (t=5.682,P<0.05),SchirmerⅠtest (t=4.592,P<0.05). The incidence of dry eye syndrome in hepatitis B patients increased from 26.70%to 53.30%two months after treated with interferon-alpha,while the incidence of dry eye syndrome in hepatitis C patients increased from 33.30% to 60.00% two months after treated with interferon-alpha.Conclusion Dry eye syndrome is one of common complica-tions in patients with chronic viral hepatitis.Interferon-alpha therapy would influence the lacrimal secretion and dam-age tear film,which increased the dry symptoms in patients.We should pay attention to the side effects of interferon-alpha therapy.

Objective To explore the effects of hyperbaric oxygen treatment on chronic stress and glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression in the hippocampus.Methods A total of 60 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into a restraint group,an HBO (hyperbaric oxygen) group,an HBO-restraint group and a control group using a random number table,each group with 15 animals.All the rats in the restraint and HBO groups were constrained by immobilizing their fore-and hind-limbs on a self-made frame for 3h daily for 21 days,and those in the HBO group received HBO treatment once daily for the same 21 days.The HBO-restraint group was immobilized in the morning and treated with HBO in the afternoon.The control group was reared without any special intervention.On the 1st,11th and 21st day of treatment,rats from the different groups were assessed using the open field test.On the 21st day,all the animals were sacrificed and their brains were harvested to detect GR expression.Results In the open field test on the 11 th day,the restraint group scored (131.0 ± 20.6) in terms of motor level and (26.5 ± 4.6) for exploratory behavior,both significantly higher than before restraint and significantly higher than those in the HBO-restraint group at the same time point.Immunofluorescence assay showed that GR expression in the hippocampus of the restraint group was significantly decreased compared with the control group.There was no significant difference,however,between the HBO-restraint group and the control group.Conclusion Chronic restraint stress induces changes in behavior and GR expression in rats which can be alleviated by hypbaric oxygen treatment.