Project description:The graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) associated dry eye disease usually leads to refractory pain and visual impairment with limited treatments currently. Here we found exosome derived from mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC-exo) administered as eye drops significantly alleviates GVHD-associated dry eye disease in human and mouse models. To find out the essential elements during exosome treatment, we performed miRNA sequencing of exosomes derived from MSCs and L929 cells, and identified miR-204 in MSC-exo benefited the recovery of dry eye, which targeted IL-6/IL-6R/Stat3 signaling. Blockade of miR-204 abolished the therapeutic effect of MSC-exo while miR-204 overexpression from L929-exo markedly attenuates dry eye. Thus MSC-exo eye drops are efficacious in treating GVHD-associated dry eye and highlight miR-204 as a potential therapeutic agent.
Project description:Rabbit Dry Eye Diesease model induced with 3 weekly injections of Concanavalin A into the periorbital lacrimal glands Male Dutch-Belted rabbits. The pathophysiology of dry eye disease (DED) remains largely unknown, accounting in part for the lack of successful treatments. The transcriptome of full-thickness’s conjunctival tissue from rabbits with DED and from normal controls was determined using microarrays. DED induced large-scale changes in gene transcription involving 5,184 genes (22% of the total). Differentially expressed genes could be segregated into: functional modules and clusters; altered pathways; functionally linked genes; and groups of individual genes of known or suspected pathophysiological relevance to DED. A common feature of these subgroups is the breadth and magnitude of the changes that encompass ocular immunology and essentially all aspects of cell biology. Prominent changes concerned innate and adaptive immune responses; ocular surface inflammation; at least 25 significantly altered signaling pathways; a large number of chemokines; cell cycle; and apoptosis. Comparison of our findings to the limited extant transcriptomic data from DED patients associated with either Sjogren’s syndrome or non-Sjogren’s etiologies revealed a significant correlation between human and rabbit DED transcriptomes. Our data, establishing the large-scale transcriptomic changes of DED and their potential similarity to the human, underscore the enormous complexity of DED; establish a robust animal model of DED; will help expand our understanding of its pathophysiology; and could guide the development of successful therapeutic strategies.
Project description:Corneal architecture is essential for vision and is greatly perturbed by the absence of tears due to the highly prevalent disorder dry eye. With no regenerative therapies available, pathological alterations of the ocular surface in response to dryness, including persistent epithelial defects and poor wound healing, result in lifelong morbidity. Here, using a mouse model of aqueous-deficient dry eye, we reveal that topical application of the synthetic tear protein lacripep reverses the pathological outcomes of dry eye through restoring the extensive network of corneal nerves that are essential for tear secretion, barrier function, epithelial homeostasis and wound healing. Intriguingly, the restorative effects of lacripep occur despite extensive immune cell infiltration, suggesting tissue reinnervation and regeneration can be achieved under chronic inflammatory conditions. In summary, our data highlight lacripep as a first-in-class regenerative therapy for returning the cornea to a near homeostatic state in individuals who suffer from dry eye.