Extensive characterization of human tear fl uid collected using different techniques unravels the presence of novel lipid amphiphiles

Sin Man Lam, Louis Tong, Xinrui Duan, Andrea Petznick, Markus R. Wenk, Guanghou Shui*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

233 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The tear film covers the anterior eye and the precise balance of its various constituting components is critical for maintaining ocular health. The composition of the tear film amphiphilic lipid sublayer, in particular, has largely remained a matter of contention due to the limiting concentrations of these lipid amphiphiles in tears that render their detection and accurate quantitation tedious. Using systematic and sensitive lipidomic approaches, we validated dif ferent tear collection techniques and report the most comprehensive human tear lipidome to date; comprising more than 600 lipid species from 17 major lipid classes. Our study confers novel insights to the compositional details of the existent tear film model, in particular the disputable amphiphilic lipid sublayer constituents, by demonstrating the presence of cholesteryl sulfate, O-Acyl- α -hydroxy fatty acids, and various sphingolipids and phospholipids in tears. The discovery and quantitation of the relative abundance of various tear lipid amphiphiles reported herein are expected to have a profound impact on the current understanding of the existent human tear film model. -Lam, S. M., L. Tong, X. Duan, A. Petznick, M. R. Wenk, and G. Shui. Extensive characterization of human tear fl uid collected using different techniques unravels the presence of novel lipid amphiphiles.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)289-298
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Lipid Research
Volume55
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Cholesteryl sulfates
  • Dry eye syndrome
  • Lipidomics
  • Mass spectrometry
  • Meibum
  • O-Acyl- α - hydroxy fatty acids
  • Tear lipidome

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