( roughly adjacent to the eyelashes. Res...)Tears Reveal Some of Their Deepest Secrets to Researchers,Health

roughly adjacent to the eyelashes. Researchers gently pressed the volunteers’ lower eyelids and collected droplets of meibum in tiny glass tubes.

The researchers examined the meibum samples in the laboratory. They used a technique called electrospray mass spectrometry to differentiate between the different lipid components. This technique adds an electric charge to microscopic droplets of the oily substance, which allows the instrument to detect different components based on electrical charges and mass.

Nichols points out that researchers have used other techniques, such as chromatography, to characterize types of lipids in the tear film, but advances in mass spectrometry technology are improving research efforts.

“Other scientists used different techniques to try to determine the composition of meibum, but mass spectrometry is sensitive enough to detect individual lipid molecules, like oleamide,” Nichols said.

Oleamide was first identified as a lipid in the brain, where one of its roles is to induce sleep. It also has other key functions throughout the central nervous system. But the current study is the first to find and describe oleamide and related lipids in tear film.

“The finding could give us more insight into the role of lipid activity in humans and may also indicate a new function for oleamide and related lipids in cellular signaling in the eye and in the maintenance of tear film,” said Nichols, adding that researchers don’t fully understand the function of oleamide, or the other lipids in the meibum.

“Oleamide appears to be a predominate lipid in tear film,” she said. “It’s there for a reason, but we’re not sure yet what that reason is.”

Nichols and her team are currently studying the role of oleamide in cellular signaling and communication in the eye, along with the role that the lipid may play in dry eye.

“Dry eye is really a disorder of symptoms that irritat
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