Abstract
Purpose :
Eicosanoids, for example 15-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (15-HETE) or 12-HETE, have long been implicated in ocular surface inflammation. Limited data exist on their role and mechanism of action in human eyes, particularly in the pediatric population. The goal of our study was to measure eicosanoid levels in the tears of diseased and normal eyes of children and then determine if there was a difference between diseased and normal eyes.
Methods :
Tears were collected from 27 eyes of 14 pediatric patients prior to undergoing procedures at the Westchester Medical Center. Patients were between the ages of 7 weeks to 11 years. 21 eyes were being evaluated for various eye diseases, including cataracts, glaucoma, and congenital corneal opacities. Some of these eyes were status post surgical procedures, for example cataract surgery or corneal transplants, at the time of tear collection. 6 eyes were normal and healthy. Tears were collected using Schirmer’s strips. The strips were immediately placed in 100% methanol and stored under -80 °C. Eicosanoids were extracted by centrifuging the samples, collecting the supernatants, and performing lipid extraction using C18-ODS AccuBond II 500-mg columns. LC-MS/MS-based lipidomics were then performed to determine the quantities of the eicosanoids present in each sample.
Results :
The eicosanoids collected and identified were: hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (15-HETE, 12-HETE, 5-HETE), epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (14(15)-EET, 11(12)-EET, 5(6)-EET), and dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids (14,15 DHET, 11,12 DHET, 8,9 DHET). 15-HETE and 12-HETE were present in 100% of normal eyes, and 5-HETE was present in 67% of the normal eyes (See figure 1). 15-HETE and 5-HETE were present in 78% of diseased eyes, and 12-HETE was present in 100% of the diseased eyes (See figure 2). 14(15)-EET, 11(12)-EET, 5(6)-EET, 14,15 DHET, 11,12 DHET, and 8,9 DHET, respectively, were each present in 22%, 9%, 35%, 9%, 4%, and 4%, of the diseased eyes (See figure 2), but were not present in normal eyes.
Conclusions :
Our results showed that 15-HETE, 12-HETE, and 5-HETE were all present in both the diseased and normal eyes, but 14(15)-EET, 11(12)-EET, 5(6)-EET, 14,15 DHET, 11,12 DHET, and 8,9 DHET were only present in the diseased eyes. This demonstrates that the tears of the diseased eyes of children contain a greater variety of eicosanoids compared to normal eyes.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.