Assessment of Cornea and Tear Smoothness in an Autoimmune Dry Eye Rat Model

To measure the cornea tear smoothness, place the rat under a stereomicroscope, equipped with a ring illuminator and a camera. Then, apply 5 microliters of saline to the rat cornea. With gloved fingers, passively blink by moving the upper and lower eyelids approximately five times to spread the saline. Under 1.6 times magnification, focus the ring illuminator on the middle of the cornea surface, then, after 10 seconds, acquire photographic images.