New Horizons in Ocular Surface Biology

A special issue of Biology (ISSN 2079-7737).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 February 2024) | Viewed by 1983

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
CORONIS FOUNDATION, 81241 München, Germany
Interests: holistic understanding of corneal homoeostasis; new approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of ocular surface disorders; new approaches to minimizing ocular drug side effects

Special Issue Information

Progress is currently being made to solve the enigma of ocular surface homeostasis and its disruption. Recent medical and scientific progress may lead to a fundamental paradigm shift in the field. The non-profit CORONIS FOUNDATION has established the Ophthalmic Fiction Workshop as a platform for the interdisciplinary discussion of new ideas and concepts in their early stages. This provides scientists with a unique opportunity to sharpen and communicate their ideas, and to develop them to a stage where they are ready for publication in a peer reviewed journal. Our next workshop, a Zoom meeting of approximately 15 scientists on ‘New Horizons in Ocular Surface Biology’, is scheduled for 22 April 2023. After the workshop, each participant is encouraged to submit a manuscript for publication in a Special Issue of Biology entitled ‘New Horizons in Ocular Surface Biology’. This Special Issue will open the gate to future advances in the field and become a platform for discussion among ophthalmologists and scientists involved in ocular surface research.

Dear Colleagues,

Since 2017, the CORONIS FOUNDATION has been organizing Ophthalmic Fiction Workshops. These workshops are a platform for new ideas to be presented by a small invited group of open minded, multidisciplinary, international experts. We encourage ‘thinking outside the box’ and intend to support new ideas and concepts on their path to general recognition.

We respect the intellectual ownership of the ideas presented and provide a platform for open discussion and support. In the past, we left it to individual participants to publish their ideas. However, we later recognized that it may be challenging to publish novel ideas and concepts in peer-reviewed journals with high impact factors. Moreover, the offer from Biology (IF 5.168) to publish the results of our workshop in a Special Issue of this journal is likely to increase the visibility of each article.

Our Ophthalmic Fiction Workshop is scheduled as a Zoom meeting for 22 April 2023. As a special feature, this symposium will emphasize the biological aspects of ocular surface pathophysiology. Together with all participants, we will try to develop a holistic view of ocular surface homeostasis and its disturbances.

At your earliest convenience, we cordially invite you to provide an abstract of the ideas, concepts, and hypotheses that you would like to present and discuss during our workshop.

Of the concepts we receive, we will select 15 and invite their authors to our workshop.

Dr. Wolfgang G.K. Müller-Lierheim
Dr. Gysbert-Botho van Setten
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • ocular surface biology and disease
  • dry eye
  • allergic keratoconjunctivitis
  • infection
  • corneal wound healing
  • epithelial barrier
  • glycocalyx
  • corneal nerves
  • corneal innate immune system
  • hyaluronan
  • extracellular matrix
  • inflammation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

16 pages, 3434 KiB  
Review
Cellular Stress in Dry Eye Disease—Key Hub of the Vicious Circle
by Gysbert-Botho van Setten
Biology 2024, 13(9), 669; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology13090669 - 28 Aug 2024
Viewed by 1116
Abstract
Disturbance or insufficiency of the tear film challenges the regulatory systems of the ocular surfaces. The reaction of the surfaces includes temporary mechanisms engaged in the preservation of homeostasis. However, strong or persisting challenges can lead to the potential exhaustion of the coping [...] Read more.
Disturbance or insufficiency of the tear film challenges the regulatory systems of the ocular surfaces. The reaction of the surfaces includes temporary mechanisms engaged in the preservation of homeostasis. However, strong or persisting challenges can lead to the potential exhaustion of the coping capacity. This again activates the vicious circle with chronic inflammation and autocatalytic deterioration. Hence, the factors challenging the homeostasis should be addressed in time. Amongst them are a varying osmolarity, constant presence of small lesions at the epithelium, acidification, attrition with mechanical irritation, and onset of pain and discomfort. Each of them and, especially when occurring simultaneously, impose stress on the coping mechanisms and lead to a stress response. Many stressors can culminate, leading to an exhaustion of the coping capacity, outrunning normal resilience. Reaching the limits of stress tolerance leads to the manifestation of a lubrication deficiency as the disease we refer to as dry eye disease (DED). To postpone its manifestation, the avoidance or amelioration of stress factors is one key option. In DED, this is the target of lubrication therapy, substituting the missing tear film or its components. The latter options include the management of secondary sequelae such as the inflammation and activation of reparative cascades. Preventive measures include the enhancement in resilience, recovery velocity, and recovery potential. The capacity to handle the external load factors is the key issue. The aim is to guard homeostasis and to prevent intercellular stress responses from being launched, triggering and invigorating the vicious circle. Considering the dilemma of the surface to have to cope with increased time of exposure to stress, with simultaneously decreasing time for cellular recovery, it illustrates the importance of the vicious circle as a hub for ocular surface stress. The resulting imbalance triggers a continuous deterioration of the ocular surface condition. After an initial phase of the reaction and adaption of the ocular surface to the surrounding challenges, the normal coping capacity will be exhausted. This is the time when the integrated stress response (ISR), a protector for cellular survival, will inevitably be activated, and cellular changes such as altered translation and ribosome pausing are initiated. Once activated, this will slow down any recovery, in a phase where apoptosis is imminent. Premature senescence of cells may also occur. The process of prematurization due to permanent stress exposures contributes to the risk for constant deterioration. The illustrated flow of events in the development of DED outlines that the ability to cope, and to recover, has limited resources in the cells at the ocular surface. The reduction in and amelioration of stress hence should be one of the key targets of therapy and begin early. Here, lubrication optimization as well as causal treatment such as the correction of anatomical anomalies (leading to anatomical dry eye) should be a prime intent of any therapy. The features of cellular stress as a key hub for the vicious circle will be outlined and discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Horizons in Ocular Surface Biology)
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