Lipid scientist working w/ tears

[shjbrown]

Dear all,

I recently found this forum while searching for papers. I'm a biochemist, specialised in mass spectrometry, and recently started a project looking at the lipid profile of tears. We are focused on human tears and meibum, with the ability to measure profiles from individual patients.

I am here with interests to learn more about the context of my work, and more about current products on the market, especially the problems with lipid (or oil) based drops that are on the market.

Simon HJ Brown, PhD
Research Fellow
School of Chemistry
Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute

[Guest]

Welcome! Nice to "meet" you!

[NeedMyEyes]

Simon, I long to go back in time and visit this forum as a person that didn't suffer from dry eye / meibomian gland dysfunction. I wish I could read these posts through those objective eyes. Now, I can't. Everything I read, I read with only one thought - making my eyes normal again!

Anyway, just to let you know, the lipid based eye drops out there now are Systane Balance, Soothe XP and I believe there is another.

[shjbrown]

Thanks for the welcome!

As far as I can see, the current products are nothing close to our endogenous lipid layer. Even the ones using phospholipids have the wrong ones, and recent evidence is suggesting the actual amphiphilic lipid is not a phospholipid anyway.

I'm new to the field, but from a lipidomic standpoint there are a lot of rare or unique lipids in the tear film. I'd believe that nature has put them there for a reason!

I'm not going to jump into any of the argument if a lipid based eyedrop is a good thing or not, but I think finding out what is in tears, and especially quantifying the changes that occur in dry eye patients may help us move towards better treatment.