by Joel Harrison
13. February 2012 18:45
Since it is known that contact lenses wearers suffer from corneal infections more often than those who use other means of vision correction or do not need to, scientists in many research centres have been conducting studies to understand the reasons for this phenomenon. Recently, a group of researchers have designed a study to find out whether multipurpose contact lens solutions are responsible for the increased risk of infections by destroying a protective layer of mucins (proteins produced by epithelial cells) that is normally present on the surface of the eye.
In order to do that, the researchers cultured human corneal epithelial cells and treated them with four popular multipurpose contact lens solutions. Subsequently, they checked the expression and release of mucins.
As a result, the scientists discovered that multipurpose solutions affect (to varying extents) the release of mucins, which confirms the hypothesis that such solutions raise the risk of eye infections by damaging the protective mucin layer. Further research is needed, however, to understand how it happens and how to minimise this issue.
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