Serum components to support corneal health

PROJECT SUMMARY
For almost 50 years, blood-based therapies, such as autologous serum tears (ASTs), have been used in clinical
ophthalmology to treat diverse ocular surface disorders including Sjogren's syndrome-related dry eye disease,
persistent epithelial defects, chemical injury, recurrent erosion syndrome, superior limbic keratoconjunctivitis,
neurotrophic keratopathy, limbal stem cell disease, cicatrizing conjunctivitis, and post-corneal cross-linking haze.
It is theorized that serum has components that either replace those missing endogenously or modulate pathways
to restore healthy function. However, to date, there has been no detailed molecular characterization of serum
tears in the context of ocular surface disease. The poorly defined mechanism of serum tears in treating ocular
surface disease leads to two important challenges in their clinical application: (1) the lack of a standard
concentration for preparation, and (2) the inconvenient and costly process of obtaining ASTs. Thus, despite
many clinical studies that demonstrate the ability of serum tears to improve both objective signs and subjective
symptoms of ocular surface disorders, formulation and accessibility issues have limited its more widespread use.
Our overall objective is to define the combinations of serum components (growth factors, signaling lipids,
vitamins, etc.) that support corneal repair. We hypothesize that the effects of serum tears are due a simple
combination of bioactive factors, some of which remain to be characterized, or the result of synergistic actions
of serum components. Our studies seek to determine bioactive serum tear components and define synergism
between components, and characterize the in vivo effects of blood-based tears in an ocular surface disease
model. We anticipate this project will yield both translational insight to the clinical use of serum tears, and likely
improve current formulation and accessibility issues which may allow for more widespread use. Furthermore,
the identification and characterization of bioactive serum tear components is expected to reveal potential
therapeutic targets for further exploration.

Grant Number: 5R21EY035829-02
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Matilda Chan