All4Nutra
Dry eye disease (DED) has been reported to afflict 7–33% of the population, thereby reducing their quality of life. For normal vision, continuous moistening of the ocular surface is needed. Important roles are played in this by a sufficient quality of tears, maintenance of the normal composition of the tear film, normal lid closure, and regular blinking [1, 2]. If equilibrium is lost, the DED can occur, resulting in eye discomfort and visual disturbance [2, 3]. DED is accompanied by changes in mucin distribution and glycosylation, a dysfunction of MUC4 and MUC5AC and a high calcium level [4]. The mucins act as a lubricant during blinking, stabilize the preocular tear film to prevent desiccation of the epithelium, and form a barrier against pathogen penetrance [5]. Intracellular calcium is responsible for cationic shielding to keep negatively charged mucins
condensed and packed within the granules of goblet cells. In the event of enhanced calcium release, the granules swell, become detached fromthe cell surface, formlarge aggregates, and diffuse onto the epithelial surface. This leads to a lower degree of hydration of the mucus coverage, which contains dry spots, resulting in decreased tear film stability
Benjámin Gyarmati,2 András Szilágyi,2 Szilvia Berkó,1 Piroska Szabó-Révész,1
Giuseppina Sandri,3 Maria Cristina Bonferoni,3 Carla Caramella,3 Judit Soós,4
Andrea Facskó,4 and Erzsébet Csányi1
1Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Szeged, E¨otv¨os utca 6, Szeged 6720, Hungary
2Soft Matters Group, Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science,
Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budafoki ´ut 8, Budapest 1111, Hungary
3Department of Drug Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Pavia, Viale Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy
4Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Szeged, Kor´anyi fasor 10-11, Szeged 6720, Hungary
Correspondence should be addressed to Erzs´ebet Cs´anyi; [email protected]
