Fig. 1
From: Identification of glutamine as a potential therapeutic target in dry eye disease
The combination therapy of MSC and Tβ4 exhibited an enhancement in dry eye conditions, contributing to the improved restoration of tear secretion, mitigation of pathological damage, and attenuation of apoptosis. a Experimental design. b MSC treatment increased tear secretion, and MSC + Tβ4 indicated a substantial enhancement in tear volume, n = 8. c Both MSC and Tβ4 treatment tended to prolong tear film breakup time (BUT) compared to the DED group, with the combined treatment group more significantly prolonging BUT, suggesting improvement of tear secretion, n = 8. The combination treatment increased the number of goblet cells (d, e) and reduced the pathological damage (f), scale bar = 200 μm. g, h TUNEL staining showed a stronger anti-apoptotic effect following the combination treatment, scale bar = 100 μm. i Corneal fluorescein staining images showed a reduction of corneal damage in the combination treatment group. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001
