Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the effects of topical dry eye treatment on anxiety-related behavior in environmental dry eye stress (EDES) model mouse
Methods :
Thirty C57BL/6 mice were divided into three treatment groups; vehicle group (artificial tear), HA group (0.1% hyaluronic acid) and rebamipide group (2% rebamipide). Mice were exposed to EDES for 3 days (5h/day). EDES mimicked a stressful office working environment. In each group, eye drops were initiated 5 days prior to EDES (4 times a day) and was continued during EDES (2 times a day). Before and after EDES, the following examinations were performed; aqueous tear secretion volume, vital stainings including fluorescein and lissamine green staining scores. Behavior tests including open-field test and elevated plus-maze test were conducted to analyze anxiety-related behavior. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA was performed using Graphpad Prism software. A p value less than 5% was considered to be a significant.
Results :
In all three groups, the tear secretion volume significantly decreased (p<0.0001), and the vital staining scores significantly increased after EDES exposure (p<0.0001). After exposure to EDES, the mean tear secretion quantity in the rebamipide group (0.16±0.03mm/g) showed a significantly higher value than the vehicle (0.11±0.04 mm/g, p=0.004) and the HA group (0.12±0.05mm/g, p=0.016). Similarly, the mean fluorescein staining score in the rebamipide group (4.3±0.67pts) was significantly lower than the vehicle (3.1±0.74pts, p=0.03). The mean lissamine green staining score in the rebamipide group (3.3±0.68 pts) was significantly lower than the vehicle (4.2±0.92pts, p=0.016) and the HA group (4.0±0.67pts, p=0.003).
Center staying time in open-field test decreased significantly after EDES exposure in all groups (p<0.0001). There were no significant differences between treatment groups (p=0.113). Open arms staying time in the elevated plus-maze test in the rebamipide group (53.7±12.0s) was significantly longer than the vehicle (27.０±19.6s, p=0.007) and HA group (31.0±15.6s, p=0.011).
Conclusions :
Our current research found that topical dry eye treatment could affect anxiety-related behavior in dry eye model mice. A dry eye remedy with a superior treatment effect was associated with lesser induction of anxiety-related behavior.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.