A team of researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have reportedly demonstrated that a coating of purified porcine gastric mucin on contact lenses can help protect dry eye sufferers from corneal damage.
According to researchers, the tears of dry eye suffers normally do not contain enough of mucin MUC5AC, which can be problematic if they are also wearing contact lenses as there is no protective lubricant film between the eye and the contact lens.
Researchers reportedly developed a method for isolating the necessary mucin MUC5AC from the stomachs of pigs, as the chemical structure of this pig mucin is very similar to the human molecule. The team reportedly found the mucin passively adsorbs to the contact lens material and forms a lubricating layer between the contact lens and the cornea. And the researchers reportedly believe contact lenses soaked in a mucin solution overnight would be able to obtain this protective effect.
The study was recently published in the journal Advanced Materials Interfaces.
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Source: Technical University of Munich