Abstract
Purpose :
To compare the efficacy of 0.1%, 0.18%, and 0.3% hyaluronic acid (HA) artificial tear eye drops in the treatment of experimental dry eye (EDE).
Methods :
Experimental dry eye was established in female C57BL/6 mice by subcutaneous scopolamine injection and an air draft. The mice were divided into five groups (n = 10): EDE control, balanced salt solution (BSS), preservative free 0.1% HA, preservative free 0.18% HA, and preservative free 0.3% HA. The tear film break-up time (TBUT) and corneal fluorescein staining scores were measured 5, 10, 14, 21, and 28 days after treatment. The corneal smoothness scores were measured 28 days after treatment. In addition, PAS staining and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-nick end labelling (TUNEL) staining was performed to evaluate the counts of conjunctival goblet cells and corneal apoptotic cells.
Results :
Values for TBUT and corneal fluorescein scores showed improvements in all HA groups (P < 0.05) after 10 days of treatment compared to EDE and BSS. Mice treated with 0.3% HA showed a significant improvement in all clinical parameters compared with the EDE control, BSS, 0.1% HA, and 0.18% HA groups (all P < 0.05) after 28 days with treatment. Goblet cell counts were higher in the 0.3% HA group than in the BSS or 0.1% HA group. A significantly decreased TUNEL positive cells was identified in the 0.3% HA group.
Conclusions :
Administration of 0.1%, 0.18%, and 0.3% HA was effective in improving clinical signs, increasing goblet cell counts, and decreasing corneal apoptotic cells for experimental dry eye. Furthermore, 0.3% HA artificial tears may be most effective adjunctive therapeutic method for dry eye.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.