Tear lipidomics profiling reveals inflammatory dry eye disease-associated lipid metabolic remodeling at the ocular surface

ABSTRACT: This study aimed to investigate whether inflammatory dry eye disease (DED) is accompanied by abnormal lipid metabolic remodeling at the ocular surface. Tear samples were collected from patients with DED and matched healthy controls. Lipidomics profiling was performed using LC–MS/MS with a standardized acquisition and computational analysis workflow. Global non-targeted metabolomic analysis revealed extensive alterations in tear lipid composition in the DED group relative to controls. Multivariate statistical modeling, including principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), demonstrated clear separation between DED and control cohorts, confirming a distinct metabolic phenotype in DED. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering further identified a reproducible disease-specific lipidomic signature. Significantly dysregulated metabolites included multiple lipid classes, particularly sphingolipids, phosphatidylcholines (PCs), and lysophospholipids. Mechanistically, differentially regulated lipid species converged on coordinated functional modules governing ER–mitochondria lipid crosstalk, including MAM-dependent phospholipid flux (PC/PE/PI/PS), neutral lipid buffering (TG/DG), and sphingolipid inflammatory gating (Cer/SM). Pathway enrichment analysis showed that lipids elevated in DED samples were predominantly associated with lipid metabolism and sphingolipid metabolism pathways. This dataset provides a comprehensive resource for understanding lipid metabolic reprogramming at the ocular surface in inflammatory dry eye disease.

INSTRUMENT(S): Liquid Chromatography MS - negative - reverse-phase, Liquid Chromatography MS - positive - reverse-phase

PROVIDER: MTBLS14218 | MetaboLights | 2026-04-03

REPOSITORIES: MetaboLights