Department of Ophthalmology, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjukuku, Tokyo, 160-8582, Japan.
Department of Ophthalmology, Shonan Keiiku Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2021 Mar 19;11(1):6434. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-85895-y.
The incidence of dry eye disease is increasing worldwide because of the aging population and increasing use of information technology. Dry eye disease manifests as tear-layer instability and inflammation caused by osmotic hypersensitization in tear fluids; however, to our knowledge, no agent that treats both pathologies simultaneously is available. Molecular hydrogen (H) is known to be effective against various diseases; therefore, we aimed to elucidate the effects of H on tear dynamics and the treatment of dry eye disease. We revealed that administering a persistent H-generating supplement increased the human exhaled H concentration (p < 0.01) and improved tear stability (p < 0.01) and dry eye symptoms (p < 0.05) significantly. Furthermore, H significantly increased tear secretion in healthy mice (p < 0.05) and significantly suppressed tear reduction in a murine dry eye model (p = 0.007). H significantly and safely improved tear stability and dry eye symptoms in a small exploratory group of 10 human subjects, a subset of whom reported dry eye symptoms prior to treatment. Furthermore, it increased tear secretion rapidly in normal mice. Therefore, H may be a safe and effective new treatment for dry eye disease and thus larger trials are warranted.
干眼症的发病率在全球范围内呈上升趋势，这是由于人口老龄化和信息技术使用的增加。干眼症表现为泪液层不稳定和炎症，这是由泪液中的渗透敏感引起的；然而，据我们所知，还没有一种同时治疗这两种病理的药物。已知分子氢（H）对各种疾病有效；因此，我们旨在阐明 H 对泪液动力学和干眼症治疗的影响。我们发现，持续给予 H 生成补充剂可显著增加人体呼出的 H 浓度（p<0.01），并显著改善泪液稳定性（p<0.01）和干眼症症状（p<0.05）。此外，H 还可显著增加健康小鼠的泪液分泌（p<0.05），并显著抑制小鼠干眼症模型中的泪液减少（p=0.007）。H 在 10 名人类受试者的一个小型探索性小组中安全有效地改善了泪液稳定性和干眼症症状，其中一部分受试者在治疗前报告有干眼症症状。此外，它还能迅速增加正常小鼠的泪液分泌。因此，H 可能是一种安全有效的干眼症新疗法，因此需要进行更大规模的试验。
