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How Cytokines Tell the Dry Eye Story

Hello, I am Dr. David Kading. Welcome to Eyecare’s Lit brought to you by Optometric Insights Media.  In this episode, we unpack four key studies that reveal how immune messengers in tears shape the biology of dry eye disease.
We’re going to look at two major meta-analyses and the DREAM biomarker studies.  These studies show us that the cytokine balance plays a key role in driving inflammation, disease severity, and the mismatch between symptoms and signs in both routine and autoimmune dry eye.

Hopefully we can better discover how understanding these molecular “conversations” could guide personalized diagnosis and treatment.

Sources:

• Aljohani S, Jazzar A. Tear cytokine levels in sicca syndrome-related dry eye: a meta-analysis. Diagnostics (Basel). 2023;13.
  
  
• Roda M et al. Dry eye disease and tear cytokine levels — a meta-analysis. Int J Mol Sci. 2020;21.
  
  
• Zhao CS et al. Association of tear cytokine ratios with symptoms and signs of dry eye disease. Curr Eye Res. 2024;49:16-24.

Chen Y et al. A latent profile analysis of tear cytokines and their association with severity of dry eye disease in the DREAM study. Sci Rep. 2024;14:52 6.

Links:

1. https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/13/13/2184?utm_source=chatgpt.com
2. https://iris.unica.it/retrieve/9bc09789-cd1d-408c-bd70-f6269d95e0fd/RODA_cytokines_ijms-21-03111.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
3. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10841381/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
4. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377157605_A_latent_profile_analysis_of_tear_cytokines_and_their_association_with_severity_of_dry_eye_disease_in_the_Dry_Eye_Assessment_and_Management_DREAM_study?utm_source=chatgpt.com