Antigens applied to the ocular surface, imaged by confocal microscopy, passed into the conjunctival stroma through goblet cell associated passages (GAPs) in wild type C57BL/6 (WT), while ovalbumin (OVA) was retained in the epithelium of SAM pointed domain containing ETS transcription factor (<i>Spdef</i>) knockout mice (<i>Spdef</i><sup>-</sup>/<sup>-</sup>) that lack GCs and are a novel model of dry eye.