Looking deeper into ocular surface health: an introduction to clinical tear proteomics analysis

Ocular surface diseases are becoming more prevalent worldwide. Reasons for this include the ongoing population ageing and increasing use of digital displays, although ophthalmologists have a wide selection of tools, which can be implemented in the evaluation of the ocular surface health, methods, which enable the in-depth study of biological functions are gaining more interest. These new approaches are needed, since the individual responses to ocular surface diseases and treatments can vary from person to person, and the correlations between clinical signs and symptoms are often low. Modern mass spectrometry (MS) methods can produce information on hundreds of tear proteins, which in turn can provide valuable information on the biological effects occurring on the ocular surface. In this review article, we will provide an overview of the different aspects, which are part of a successful tear proteomics study design and equip readers with a better understanding of the methods most suited for their MS-based tear proteomics study in the field of ophthalmology and ocular surface.