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Environmental factors in ocular surface disease
Author(s) -
Calonge M.,
GonzalezGarcia M.J.,
Enriquez de Salamanca A.,
Fernandez I.,
PintoFraga J.,
Teson M.,
MartinMontanez V.,
Stern M.E.,
LopezMiguel A.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2015.0215
Subject(s) - medicine , disease , dry eyes , ophthalmology , pathology
It is well known the unquestionable influence of the environment in the prevalence/severity of certain ocular surface diseases such as vernal keratoconjunctivitis, pterigium, allergic conjunctivitis or certain infectious diseases. Our research has been focused however on the effects of indoor artificial environments on the ocular surface. These indoor facilities in which we spend a large percentage of our lives (i.e. work places, homes, shopping centers, recreational facilities, air plane cabins) have in common a low relative humidity and an air flow. These conditions are being shown to greatly influence one of the most prevalent diseases worldwide, Dry Eye Disease ( DED ). We have recreating these artificial environments in an environmental chamber in a Controlled Environmental Laboratory ( IOBA ‐ CERL ab) located in our Institute. Our research group has demonstrated how not only DED patients’ but even contact lens wearers’ or healthy subjects’ lacrimal functional unit worsens when exposed to adverse conditions simulating desiccating stress. The main damage was increase in corneal staining, but also some tear molecules had significant altered levels, showing potential as biomarkers of disease activity. More recently, we have demonstrated how topical steroids can ameliorate that damage provoked by desiccating stress, opening an interesting possibility of studying drug efficacy by using these artificially recreated environments.