Chan et al conclude that "the pandemic [H1N1 virus] (but not the seasonal virus) infects conjunctival epithelium, suggest[ing] that the eye may be an important route for acquiring infection with [pandemic H1N1] as compared with seasonal influenza viruses. Furthermore, this observation implies important differences in receptor preference and tissue tropism between the pandemic H1N1 and seasonal influenza viruses, which may have relevance in pathogenesis. - [However,] the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus is comparable with seasonal influenza in inducing host innate responses and does not have the intrinsic properties of cytokine dysregulation possessed by [the highly pathogenic avian influenza] virus or the 1918 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus." "While generally mild in the majority of cases, the pandemic H1N1 virus is not just another seasonal flu virus and has subtle peculiarities of its own". Future studies using host-gene expression profiling of virus infected respiratory cells using microarrays are in progress to further investigate the pathogenesis of this virus.