COMPREHENSIVE QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF HUMAN TEAR AND MEIBUM LIPIDOMES:IMPLICATIONS ON EXISTENT TEAR FILM MODEL AND PATHOGENESIS OF DRY EYE SYNDROME

Abstract

As current diagnostic indicators for dry eye syndrome (DES) lack both sensitivity and specificity, a pressing concern exists to develop activity markers that align closely with the principal axes of DES progression. Deciphering pathological alterations in single tear components therefore marks the future of human tear research. In my thesis, I report the development of a comprehensive quantitative approach for analyzing human tears and meibum, the predominant lipid source for tears, based largely on the principles of high-pressure liquid-chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS). Particular emphasis was placed on deriving the quantitative composition of the tear lipidome, as the precise homeostatic balance of tear components is instrumental in ensuring the structural integrity of tear film lipid layer for maintaining good quality vision. The lipidomic approaches developed were subsequently applied onto separate clinical cohorts in a case/control study and a longitudinal study, respectively, to unravel the lipid perturbations in DES.