title: Angiogenin for the Diagnosis and Grading of Dry Eye Syndrome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the properties of angiogenin (ANG) as a potential tool for the diagnosis and grading of dry eye syndrome (DES) by analyzing tear protein profiles.
  
  
  METHODS
  Tear samples were collected with capillary tubes from 52 DES patients and 29 normal individuals as controls. Tear protein profiles were analyzed with an immunodot blot assay as a screening test. To confirm that the tear ANG levels were in inverse proportion to the disease severity grade, the ANG and lactoferrin (LF) tear contents of normal controls and DES patients were compared in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the immunodot blot assay, the ANG area was lower in patients with grades 3 and 4 DES than in normal controls. The areas of basic fibroblast growth factor, transforming growth factor β2, and interleukin 10 were significantly greater than those of normal controls only in grade 4 DES patients, but these proteins were not linearly correlated with dry eye severity. Upon enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay analysis, the mean concentrations of ANG and LF decreased significantly as dry eye severity increased, except between grades 1 and 2. In addition, the ratios of ANG and LF to total tear proteins were correlated significantly with DES severity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ANG level was significantly lower in DES patients than in normal controls, and was significantly correlated with the worsening severity of DES, except between grades 1 and 2, as was LF. Therefore, ANG may be a useful measure of DES severity through proteomic analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Chung-Ang University Hospital, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Won Soo
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Chung-Ang University Hospital, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Wook
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Wee
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Chung-Ang University Hospital, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Seung Hoon
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Chung-Ang University Hospital, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae Chan
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D043925:Angiogenesis Inducing Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D015352:Dry Eye Syndromes / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods; D012259:Ribonuclease, Pancreatic / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013666:Tears / Q000737:chemistry; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D043925:Angiogenesis Inducing Agents; C046366:angiogenin; D012259:Ribonuclease, Pancreatic
keywords: Angiogenin; Dry eye syndrome; Lactoferrin; Tear