OHSU Researchers Discover Link Between Proteins in Tears, Pain After Eye Surgery

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) have discovered a connection between levels of certain proteins found in patients’ tears and persistent pain months after refractive surgery. The team hopes their findings, which were published in in the Journal of Proteome Research, could eventually help in the development of new screening tools and treatments for patients.

“A lot of people think tears are just salt water, when in fact we are able to detect thousands of proteins in human tears,” Sue Aicher, PhD, corresponding author on the study and a professor of chemical physiology and biochemistry in the OHSU School of Medicine, stated in an OHSU article. “It is such a rich proteome, and those proteins may impact the activity of nerves at the surface of the eye in the cornea.” 

Read the full article here.