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Dopamine levels in human tear fluid
Niyati Seshagiri Sharma1, Suraj Kumar Acharya1, Archana Padmanabhan Nair1
1GROW Research Laboratory, Narayana Nethralaya Foundation, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Purpose:
To determine the levels of dopamine in tear fluid and demonstrate the use of tear fluid as a non-invasive source for dopamine measurements in humans.
Methods:
The study cohort included 30 clinically healthy individuals without any pre-existing ocular or systemic conditions. Matched tear fluid (using Schirmer's strips and capillary tubes) and plasma were collected from the subjects. Dopamine levels were evaluated using direct competitive chemiluminescent enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), dopamine kit (Cloud Clone Corp, TX, USA).
Results:
Significantly higher dopamine levels were found in the tear fluid compared to plasma in the study subjects. The level of dopamine was 97.2 ± 11.80 pg/ml (mean ± SEM), 279 ± 14.8 pg/ml (mean ± SEM), and 470.4 ± 37.64 pg/ml (mean ± SEM) in the plasma and in the tears collected using Schirmer's strips and capillary tubes, respectively.
Conclusion:
Dopamine was detectable in all the tear fluid samples tested and was also found to be at a higher concentration than in plasma samples. Tear fluid can be used as a non-invasive sample source to monitor dopamine levels.
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