Abstract
Cordyceps cicadae (Cc), a traditional Chinese medicine, has been shown to possess immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory activities, and is regarded as having effects in vision improvement, but with no reported evidence. This study investigated the effects of Cordyceps cicadae fermented mycelia extracts (Cc extracts) in a benzalkonium chloride (BAC)-induced mouse dry eye model. Female ICR mice aged 6 weeks were randomly divided into four groups: blank, BAC-damaged without Cc extracts, BAC-damaged with 10 mg/kg bodyweight of Cc extracts, BAC-damaged with 100 mg/kg bodyweight of Cc extracts. The results showed that tear volume, tear film breakup time, and cornea surface indexes, including smoothness, opacity, topography, and the extent of lissamine green staining, were all improved with intake of Cc extracts intake, when compared to the status of the BAC-damaged group without Cc extracts. Immunohistochemical assays showed moderate change of Ki-67+ and Np63+ epithelial cell populations, while apoptotic epithelial cells, as detected by TUNEL assay, were decreased. PAS stain showed that the conjunctival goblet cell number and total cell area were decreased in the BAC-damaged group with Cc extracts at 10 mg/kg bodyweight. This study demonstrated that Cc extracts effectively ameliorate BAC-induced dry eye symptoms through enhancement of cornea resilience against BAC-induced damages and maintenance of conjunctival goblet cells.
Highlights
Dry eye disease (DED) prevails between 7.4% and 33.7% among human populations [1] and it was estimated that 25% of patients who visited ophthalmic clinics due to symptoms of dry eye [2]
Whether intake of Cc extracts may ameliorate dry eye symptoms is not known. This study investigated this potential effect in benzalkonium chloride (BAC)-induced mouse dry eye model [15]
The results demonstrated that dietary intake of Cc extracts, at 100 mg/Kg dose, helped to ameliorate BAC-induced dry eye symptoms through multiple aspects, including improvement of ocular surface grading of smoothness, topography, and lissamine green staining, increasing tear volume and tear film breakup time (TBUT) period, prevention against the extensive epithelial layer apoptosis in the central, peripheral, and limbal areas of the cornea, and maintenance of conjunctival goblet cell number and area at 10 mg/Kg dose
Summary
Dry eye disease (DED) prevails between 7.4% and 33.7% among human populations [1] and it was estimated that 25% of patients who visited ophthalmic clinics due to symptoms of dry eye [2]. The risk factors of DED include age, gender, autoimmune disease, long-term contact lens wearing, refractive laser surgery, excessive visual task performance, intake of certain systemic medications, smoking, and low humidity environments [2,3]. These risk factors characterize DED as a chronic ocular surface disorder that affects significantly quality of life through enduring discomfort and visual disturbances. Due to such extended impact, DED has attracted much attention and many efforts have been exerted in finding the ways to alleviate its symptoms. Anti-inflammation by use of anti-oxidants, such as the use of dietary alpha-lipoic acid or topic administration of CoQ10, has been experimentally applied for dry eye symptom alleviation [10,11,12]
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