Dry Eye Illness in an Animal Model improved by an Oral Probiotic Bacterial Strain

Dr. Priya Sutaoney

Assistant Professor

Department of Microbiology

An animal model of dry eye illness was found to be improved by ingestion of a readily accessible probiotic bacterial strain in a study by a research team at Baylor College of Medicine. The results have been presented at ASM Microbe 2023, the American Society for Microbiology’s annual meeting. One in twenty individuals suffer from dry eye, an issue in which the tears generated by the eye are insufficient to fully lubricate the eye. It may result in inflammation, eye itching and burning, vision impairment, and light sensitivity. If severe cases go untreated, the surface of the eye may be harmed. Applying eye drops, gels, or ointments is one of the most popular therapies. The intestinal tract’s bacteria are involved in this novel, unusual treatment. “The ‘friendly’ bacterium that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract of humans are being associated with wellness and defence from infection in numerous areas of the human body, including the intestines, nervous system, and lung,” stated the presentation’s author Laura Schaefer, Ph.D., of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. As a result, it is not strange that the gut microbiota also influences our vision. Previous studies by the aforementioned group demonstrated that animals given gut bacteria from Sjögren syndrome patients with extremely dry eyes who also had severe eye disease under dry settings had worse eye disease than mice who were given gut bacteria from healthy human patients. This shows that in dry conditions, the exterior of the eye is protected by the gut bacteria of healthy individuals. Probiotic microorganisms with comparable protective benefits could be one approach to treating dry eyes.