Tear proteomics in evaporative dry eye disease

Abstract

Purpose: To analyze tear protein variations in patients suffering from dry eye symptoms in the presence of tear film instability but without epithelial defects. Methods: Five microlitres of non-stimulated tears from 60 patients, suffering from evaporative dry eye (EDE) with a break-up time (BUT) 10 s) were collected. Tear proteins were separated by mono and bi-dimensional SDS-PAGE electrophoresis and characterized by immunoblotting and enzymatic digestion. Digested peptides were analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry followed by comparative data analysis into Swiss-Prot human protein database using Mascot. Statistical analysis were performed by applying a t-test for independent data and a Mann–Whitney test for unpaired data (Pvscontrols, a significant decrease in levels of lactoferrin (data in %±SD): 20.15±2.64 vs24.56±3.46 (P=0.001), lipocalin-1: 14.98±2.70 vs17.73±2.96 (P=0.0001), and lipophilin A–C: 2.89±1.06 vs3.63±1.37 (P=0.006) was revealed, while a significant increase was observed for serum albumin: 9.45±1.87 vs3.46±1.87 (P=0.0001). No changes for lysozyme and zinc α-2 glycoprotein (P=0.07 and 0.7, respectively) were shown. Proteomic analysis showed a downregulation of lipophilin A and C and lipocalin-1 in patients, which is suggested to be associated with post-translational modifications. Conclusions: Data show that tear protein changes anticipate the onset of more extensive clinical signs in early stage dry eye disease.