Ocular Surface Microbiota in Diabetic Patients With Dry Eye Disease

Abstract

Purpose To investigate the ocular surface (OS) commensal bacteria profiles of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and dry eye disease (DED). Methods In the present study, subjects were assigned to four groups: 37 to the diabetic mellitus with dry eye disease (DM with DED) group, 22 to the diabetes mellitus (DM)-only group, 34 to the dry eye disease (DED)-only group, and 22 to the control group. Tear fluid was collected using Schirmer's tear secretion test paper. 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) gene sequencing was used to analyze the bacterial microbiota. Results The DM with DED group showed the highest operational taxonomic unit (OTU) numbers and alpha diversity and the most different beta diversity. The groups shared the four most abundant phyla, accounting for over 96% of the total abundance. At the genus level, there were 10 types of overlap in the core microbiota in the groups. They showed significant differences between the groups. Additionally, the DM with DED group and the control group showed four unique core genera, respectively. Unclassified Clostridiales and Lactobacillus were the core microbiota members of the DM with DED group, the DM-only group, and the DED-only group, but not the control group. Conclusions In the present study, our results showed that the patients in the DM with DED group had a more complex and comprehensive ocular surface microbial composition. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to reveal the microbial profile of dry eye disease in patients with diabetes mellitus.

Ocular Surface Microbiome in Diabetes Mellitus

“…The ocular surface microbiome was previously reported to be more diverse in the DM than in the non-DM group. [29][30][31][32] Nevertheless, our study using 4 indices did not con rm such ndings. The dissimilarity may be from the different sample collection techniques, analysis, and populations.…”

“…[26][27][28] Many studies have reported the changes in the ocular surface microbiome in DM using the culture technique [19][20][21][22][23] , but only a few applied the NGS method. [29][30][31][32] To our knowledge, there is no previous report using the NGS method to study the ocular surface microbiome in DM according to the DR staging and glycemic control. Therefore, we conducted a study to identify the difference in the microbial community between DM and non-DM groups using the NGS method.…”

Metagenomic profiling of ocular surface microbiome changes in Demodex blepharitis patients

“…Lots of previous studies have shown that Proteobacteria (3.90% -74%), Actinobacteria (5.00% -64.8%), Firmicutes (3.90% -41.71%), and Bacteroidetes(1.73% -41%) were the most dominant phyla in the ocular surface of healthy subjects, dry eye disease (DED), and MGD (Lu and Liu, 2016;Cavuoto et al, 2019a;Yan et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2021;Zysset-Burri et al, 2021). In this study, the dominant phyla were consistent with previous studies' results, and the most abundant phylum was Proteobacteria.…”

Impact of Peripheral and Corneal Neuropathy on Markers of Ocular Surface Discomfort in Diabetic Chronic Kidney Disease

“…Several mechanisms, in addition to ocular surface neurosensory abnormalities, may underlie the occurrence of ocular surface discomfort or dry eye disease, including oxidative stress, 55 advanced glycation endproducts, 56 ocular surface inflammation, 51 ocular surface microbiome changes, 57 and increased prevalence of meibomian gland dysfunction in type 2 diabetes mellitus 58 . Future clinical studies are needed to validate the etiological role of these mechanisms in the development of dry eye disease in type 2 diabetes mellitus.…”