Abstract

PurposeTo compare the levels of inflammatory molecules in tear samples between patients with meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD)-related evaporative dry eye (EDE) and healthy subjects and to analyze the correlations between the levels of tear inflammatory molecules and ocular surface parameters.MethodsA total of 30 MGD-related EDE patients (48 eyes) and ten healthy volunteers (15 eyes) were enrolled. Dry eye-related examinations and questionnaires were obtained from all participants. The levels of nine inflammatory molecules were determined through multiplex bead analysis.ResultsInflammatory molecules including ICAM-1, IFN-γ, CXCL8/IL-8, IL-6, TNF-α and IL-12p70 were detected in 100% of the patients, while IL-1α, IL-1β and IL-10 were detected in 56.25%, 13.60% and 45.83% of the patients, respectively. Moreover, ICAM-1, IL-8, IL-6, TNF-α, IL-12p70 and IFN-γ were detected in 86.67–100% of the healthy subjects, and the detection rates of IL-10, IL-1α and IL-1β were below 50%. The levels of IL-8, IL-6, IFN-γ and ICAM-1 were significantly higher in the patient group compared with the control group. In addition, IL-8 and IL-6 were negatively correlated with Schirmer I test. Besides, IFN-γ was negatively correlated with tear film breakup time. Furthermore, ICAM-1 and IL-6 were positively correlated with meibography score.ConclusionsCollectively, patients with MGD-related EDE had higher levels of inflammatory molecules in their tears, and some molecules were correlated with ocular surface parameters. These findings suggested that inflammation played an important role in MGD-related EDE, and several inflammatory molecules could be used in the diagnosis and the treatment of MGD-related EDE.

Highlights

  • Dry eye disease (DED) is a most commonly diagnosed eye dysfunction in ophthalmology [1, 2]

  • intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), IL-8, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a, IL-12p70 and IFN-c were detected in 86.67–100% of the healthy subjects, and the detection rates of IL-10, IL-1a and IL-1b were below 50%

  • These findings suggested that inflammation played an important role in meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD)-related evaporative dry eye (EDE), and several inflammatory molecules could be used in the diagnosis and the treatment of MGD-related EDE

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Summary

Introduction

Dry eye disease (DED) is a most commonly diagnosed eye dysfunction in ophthalmology [1, 2]. It is defined as a multifactorial disease of tears and ocular surface that results in symptoms of discomfort, visual disturbance and tear film instability with potential damage to the ocular surface [3, 4]. The DED can mainly be classified into aqueous tear-deficient dry eye (ADDE) and evaporative dry eye (EDE) [5]. Some of them are associated with the severity of the disease and correlated with various parameters of tear film and ocular surface [15,16,17,18,19]. According to the inflammatory reaction of the ocular surface, several anti-inflammatory therapies have been used clinically, such as topical corticosteroids, cyclosporine A and lifitegrast [22, 23]

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