Found programs: National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.81460090);Healthcare Science and Technology Program of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Healthcare Commission(No.202201332);Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region(No.2023LHMS08005)
Authors:Dong Hui; Liu Jia; Zhao Tianqi; Zhao Haixia
Keywords:dry eye disease;inflammatory mediators;Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway;squamous epithelial chemotaxis;corneal epithelial damage repair;conjunctival cup cells
DOI:10.19405/j.cnki.issn1000-1492.2024.12.025
〔Abstract〕 Dry eye disease is a chronic ocular surface inflammatory disease caused by abnormal tear quality or quantity and decreased tear film stability due to various reasons, and often accompanied by ocular discomfort such as itching, dryness, foreign body sensation, and visual dysfunction, which can seriously affect the patient′s quality of life and visual quality if not intervened in time. With the change of social lifestyles, the increase of environmental pollution and the trend of population aging, dry eye disease has become the most common ocular surface disease besides refractive error. Currently, dry eye disease is widely recognized as a non-infectious immune-related inflammatory disease, but the signaling pathways involved in dry eye disease are poorly understood. Whether dry eye disease is caused by excessive tear evaporation, insufficient tear production, or mucin deficiency, the ocular surface tissues(cornea/conjunctiva) inevitably undergo pathological processes such as aberrant proliferation, squamous epithelial hyperplasia, initiation of corneal damage repair mechanisms, and reduction in the number of conjunctival goblet cells, whereas the Wnt/β-catenin pathway is known to have a wide range of biological functions and plays an important role in cell proliferation, differentiation, and stemness maintenance. Therefore, this review describes the pathogenesis and potential experimental therapeutic options of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in dry eye disease from this perspective, aiming to provide new targets for the treatment of dry eye disease and achieve the goal of controlling the disease progression from the root.