Influence of a Controlled Environment Simulating an In-Flight Airplane Cabin on Dry Eye Disease

Abstract

The controlled adverse environment conditions in this environmental chamber can simulate the conditions in which DE patients might be exposed during flight. As this clearly impaired their lacrimal functional unit, it would be advisable that DE patients use therapeutic strategies capable of ameliorating these adverse episodes.

Clinical and Molecular Inflammatory Response in Sjögren Syndrome–Associated Dry Eye Patients Under Desiccating Stress

“…13 The environmental conditions were the following: (1) Simulated adverse condition of 23ºC, 5% relative humidity, and a low air flow of 0.10 m/s; and (2) simulated normal condition of 23ºC, 45% relative humidity and 0.10 m/s air flow. 25 The order of the exposure to each condition was randomized and separated between 2 to 5 days.…”

“…B287). This questionnaire assesses the ocular discomfort due to symptoms of dryness, ranging from "none" to "severe" (0-4 scale); however, we added a visual analogue scale (0-10 scale) to increase test sensitivity as previously performed, 13,25 and evaluated the following items:…”

“…The samples were analyzed following the manufacturer's protocol, as previously described. 13,25 The minimum detectable concentrations (in pg/ml) for molecules analyzed were as follows: IFN-γ and TNF-α, 0.1; CXCL8/ IL-8 and IL-17A, 0.2; IL-2, IL-6, and IL-10, 0.3; IL-1β and IL-12p70, 0.4; CCL5/RANTES, 1; CXCL10/IP-10, 1.2; EGF, 2.7; IL-1RA, 2.9; VEGF, 5.8; CX3CL1/fractalkine, 6; and MMP-9, 10. Data were stored and analyzed with the "Bead View Software" (Upstate-Millipore Corporation, Watford, UK).…”

“…To include those samples in the statistical analysis, we assigned each the minimum detectable value provided by the assay manufacturer as previously reported. 13,25 However, molecules that were detected in less than 50% of the samples were not statistically analyzed any further.…”

“…Therefore, our research group and others have studied the clinical and tear changes occurring in dry eye patients after exposing them to several desiccating conditions to evaluate how the lacrimal functional unit responds to a controlled adverse environment. [11][12][13][14][15] However, we were not able to find in the literature reports addressing the variation of tear molecules occurring only in SS-associated dry eye patients when being exposed to controlled adverse conditions in spite of the following two well-known facts: first, inflammation plays a major role in dry eye disease, 2 and second, concentrations of some tear molecules in severe dry eye patients are consistently different from healthy subjects. [16][17][18][19] The analysis of the changes occurring in tear molecules of SS dry eye patients could be interesting from a therapeutic viewpoint, 20 because this biochemical assessment could provide information regarding the mechanism of the acute exacerbations that these severe dry eye patients frequently suffer.…”