AIM: To study the relation between corneal epithelium Langerhans cells(LCs)and pathological changes of nerve fibers in patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy in order to further analyze the pathogenesis and find the possible role of immune mechanism in this process.

METHODS: We selected 60 patients with diabetic neuropathy and 32 healthy controls to observe the morphology, number and length of corneal nerve fibers, corneal central sensation and the cell density of LCs to analyze the correlation of the two.

RESULTS: The number, length and the number of branches of corneal nerve fibers obvious declined in the patients with diabetic neuropathy. The curling degree of nerve fiber of diabetes group was obviously increased. The density of LCs at corneal central and peripheral areas in patients with diabetic neuropathy significantly increased compared to those of normal control group(P<0.05). The correlation analysis results showed that there were linear correlation between LCs and nerve fiber density(r =0.461, P=0.011), LCs and nerve fiber length(r=0.519, P=0.002). And corneal central sensation decreased obviously in patients with diabetic neuropathy compared to that in normal control(P<0.05).

CONCLUSION: In patients with diabetic neuropathy, the nerve fibers are significantly impaired, corneal sensation decreases and number of LCs significantly increases, which suggests that the changes might be mediated by the immune mechanism.