Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Jul;50(7):3203-9.
doi: 10.1167/iovs.08-2476. Epub 2009 Feb 28.

Production and activity of matrix metalloproteinase-9 on the ocular surface increase in dysfunctional tear syndrome

Suksri Chotikavanich  1 , Cintia S de Paiva, De Quan Li, Joseph J Chen, Fang Bian, William J Farley, Stephen C Pflugfelder
Affiliations

Production and activity of matrix metalloproteinase-9 on the ocular surface increase in dysfunctional tear syndrome

Suksri Chotikavanich et al. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2009 Jul.

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate production and activity of metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 on the ocular surface of patients with dysfunctional tear syndrome (DTS) and determine any correlation between MMP-9 activity and clinical parameters.

Methods: Forty-six patients with newly diagnosed DTS and 18 control subjects were recruited. Complete ocular surface examinations were performed. Tear MMP-9 activity was assessed with an MMP-9 activity assay in 1 microL of unstimulated tear fluid. Using conjunctival epithelial cells from 19 patients with DTS and 16 controls, levels of MMP-9 and its regulating cytokine mRNA transcripts were evaluated by semiquantitative real-time PCR.

Results: Each of four DTS severity-based groups had significantly higher mean MMP-9 activities than did the control group, which was 8.39 +/- 4.70 ng/mL. The DTS4 group had the highest MMP-9 activity (381.24 +/- 142.83 ng/mL), for which the mean was significantly higher than that of other DTS groups. In addition, patients with DTS had significantly higher levels of IL-1beta, IL-6, TNF-alpha, and TGF-beta1 mRNA transcripts in their conjunctival epithelia than did the control subjects. Tear MMP-9 activities showed significant correlation with symptom severity scores, decreased low-contrast visual acuity, fluorescein tear break-up time, corneal and conjunctival fluorescein staining, topographic surface regularity index (SRI), and percentage area of abnormal superficial corneal epithelia by confocal microscopy.

Conclusions: Tear MMP-9 activity was significantly higher in patients with DTS. This activity was associated with increased mRNA expression of MMP-9 and its regulating genes and correlated strongly with clinical parameters. MMP-9 appears to be a potentially useful biomarker for diagnosing, classifying, and monitoring DTS.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Representative confocal images of superficial corneal epithelium of (A) normal control, (B) DTS2, (C) DTS3, and (D) DTS4 subjects. Scale bar, 50 μm.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relative levels of MMP-9, IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and TGF-β1 mRNA transcripts in conjunctival epithelia obtained from normal subjects (n = 16) and patients with DTS (n = 19). All data (mean ± SD) were compared with the normal control: *P < 0.05; **P < 0.002.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Correlation of tear MMP-9 activity in the study population (n =64) with (A) symptom severity score, P < 0.001; (B) SRI score, P < 0.001; (C) corneal fluorescein staining score, P < 0.001; (D) conjunctival fluorescein staining score, P < 0.001; (E) decrease in low-contrast visual acuity, P = 0.002; and (F) fluorescein TBUT, P < 0.001. r2 = coefficient of determination.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Behrens A, Doyle JJ, Stern L, et al. Dysfunctional tear syndrome: a Delphi approach to treatment recommendations. Cornea. 2006;25(8):900–907. - PubMed
    1. McCollum C, Foulks G, Bodner B, et al. Rapid assay of lactoferrin in keratoconjunctivitis sicca. Cornea. 1994;13(6):505–508. - PubMed
    1. Pflugfelder SC, Jones D, Ji Z, et al. Altered cytokine balance in the tear fluid and conjunctiva of patients with Sjögren’s syndrome keratoconjunctivitis sicca. Curr Eye Res. 1999;19:201–211. - PubMed
    1. Solomon A, Dursun D, Liu Z, et al. Pro- and anti-inflammatory forms of interleukin-1 in the tear fluid and conjunctiva of patients with dry eye disease. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2001;42(10):2283–2292. - PubMed
    1. Afonso A, Sobrin L, Monroy D, et al. Tear fluid gelatinase B activity correlates with IL-1 alpha concentration and fluorescein clearance in ocular rosacea. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1999;40(11):2506–2512. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms