2.1. Participant recruitment
The study was conducted in accordance with the tenets of the Declaration
of Helsinki and was approved by the Ethics Committee of Zhongshan
Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, China). Written
informed consent was obtained from all participants after explanation of
the nature and possible consequences of the study.
Participants with an established AC diagnosis were recruited at
Zhongshan Ophthalmic Centre from December 2017 through June 2018. Both
eyes of the participants were tested for all clinical parameters. The
inclusion criteria and classification of AC were based on the Japanese
guidelines for allergic conjunctival diseases 2017.11Potential participants were excluded if they received topical
anti-bacterial treatment in a recent year; systemic antibiotics within
90 days; topical or systemic corticosteroids within 1 week; topical CsA,
tacrolimus, or any systemic immunosuppressive drug within 90 days;
scrape on the vernal plaque within 1 month; any other ocular surgery
within 6 months; or if they presented or had a history of severe
systemic allergy at the study entry. Our published metagenomic data of
the 48 healthy young subjects were used as healthy controls in this
study.10