Human Tears Reveal Insights into Corneal Neovascularization

Corneal neovascularization results from the encroachment of blood vessels from the surrounding conjunctiva onto the normally avascular cornea. The aim of this study is to identify factors in human tears that are involved in development and/or maintenance of corneal neovascularization in humans. This...

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Main Authors:	Zakaria, Nadia, Van Grasdorff, Sigi, Wouters, Kristien, Rozema, Jos, Koppen, Carina, Lion, Eva, Cools, Nathalie, Berneman, Zwi, Tassignon, Marie-José
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2012
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3348927/

id	pubmed-3348927
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-33489272012-05-15 Human Tears Reveal Insights into Corneal Neovascularization Zakaria, Nadia Van Grasdorff, Sigi Wouters, Kristien Rozema, Jos Koppen, Carina Lion, Eva Cools, Nathalie Berneman, Zwi Tassignon, Marie-José Research Article Corneal neovascularization results from the encroachment of blood vessels from the surrounding conjunctiva onto the normally avascular cornea. The aim of this study is to identify factors in human tears that are involved in development and/or maintenance of corneal neovascularization in humans. This could allow development of diagnostic tools for monitoring corneal neovascularization and combination monoclonal antibody therapies for its treatment. In an observational case-control study we enrolled a total of 12 patients with corneal neovascularization and 10 healthy volunteers. Basal tears along with reflex tears from the inferior fornix, superior fornix and using a corneal bath were collected along with blood serum samples. From all patients, ocular surface photographs were taken. Concentrations of the pro-angiogenic cytokines interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein 1 (MCP-1) and Fas Ligand (FasL) were determined in blood and tear samples using a flow cytometric multiplex assay. Our results show that the concentration of pro-angiogenic cytokines in human tears are significantly higher compared to their concentrations in serum, with highest levels found in basal tears. Interestingly, we could detect a significantly higher concentration of IL- 6, IL-8 and VEGF in localized corneal tears of patients with neovascularized corneas when compared to the control group. This is the first study of its kind demonstrating a significant difference of defined factors in tears from patients with neovascularized corneas as compared to healthy controls. These results provide the basis for future research using animal models to further substantiate the role of these cytokines in the establishment and maintenance of corneal neovascularization. Public Library of Science 2012-05-09 /pmc/articles/PMC3348927/ /pubmed/22590547 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0036451 Text en Zakaria et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Zakaria, Nadia Van Grasdorff, Sigi Wouters, Kristien Rozema, Jos Koppen, Carina Lion, Eva Cools, Nathalie Berneman, Zwi Tassignon, Marie-José
spellingShingle	Zakaria, Nadia Van Grasdorff, Sigi Wouters, Kristien Rozema, Jos Koppen, Carina Lion, Eva Cools, Nathalie Berneman, Zwi Tassignon, Marie-José Human Tears Reveal Insights into Corneal Neovascularization
author_facet	Zakaria, Nadia Van Grasdorff, Sigi Wouters, Kristien Rozema, Jos Koppen, Carina Lion, Eva Cools, Nathalie Berneman, Zwi Tassignon, Marie-José
author_sort	Zakaria, Nadia
title	Human Tears Reveal Insights into Corneal Neovascularization
title_short	Human Tears Reveal Insights into Corneal Neovascularization
title_full	Human Tears Reveal Insights into Corneal Neovascularization
title_fullStr	Human Tears Reveal Insights into Corneal Neovascularization
title_full_unstemmed	Human Tears Reveal Insights into Corneal Neovascularization
title_sort	human tears reveal insights into corneal neovascularization
description	Corneal neovascularization results from the encroachment of blood vessels from the surrounding conjunctiva onto the normally avascular cornea. The aim of this study is to identify factors in human tears that are involved in development and/or maintenance of corneal neovascularization in humans. This could allow development of diagnostic tools for monitoring corneal neovascularization and combination monoclonal antibody therapies for its treatment. In an observational case-control study we enrolled a total of 12 patients with corneal neovascularization and 10 healthy volunteers. Basal tears along with reflex tears from the inferior fornix, superior fornix and using a corneal bath were collected along with blood serum samples. From all patients, ocular surface photographs were taken. Concentrations of the pro-angiogenic cytokines interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein 1 (MCP-1) and Fas Ligand (FasL) were determined in blood and tear samples using a flow cytometric multiplex assay. Our results show that the concentration of pro-angiogenic cytokines in human tears are significantly higher compared to their concentrations in serum, with highest levels found in basal tears. Interestingly, we could detect a significantly higher concentration of IL- 6, IL-8 and VEGF in localized corneal tears of patients with neovascularized corneas when compared to the control group. This is the first study of its kind demonstrating a significant difference of defined factors in tears from patients with neovascularized corneas as compared to healthy controls. These results provide the basis for future research using animal models to further substantiate the role of these cytokines in the establishment and maintenance of corneal neovascularization.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2012
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3348927/
_version_	1611528534037102592

Human Tears Reveal Insights into Corneal Neovascularization

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