Tear film microbiome in Sjogren's and non-Sjogren's aqueous deficiency dry eye.

Purpose: To understand the bacterial microbiome changes associated with Sjogren's syndrome (SS) and non-Sjogren's syndrome (NSS) aqueous-deficient dry eyes compared to healthy eyes.

Methods: Bacterial microbiome was generated from the deoxyribonucleic acid of tear film samples in healthy (n = 33), SS (n = 17), and NSS (n = 28) individuals. Sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was performed on the Illumina HiSeq2500 platform.

Characterising the tear bacterial microbiome in young adults.

Conjunctival swabs (CS) are the major source of sampling for ocular microbiome studies, however collecting CS from the diseased eyes is difficult and painful. In this study, as an alternative to CS, a less invasive approach of tear collection was used to establish the bacterial microbiome in healthy eyes. Tear bacterial microbiome was generated from the DNA of tears (n = 24; male = 16 and female = 8) of healthy volunteers aged from 20 to 52 years.