IU School of Optometry Assistant Professor and Director of the Dry Eye Clinic Anna Tichenor, OD, PhD, has been awarded the American Optometric Association’s Investigator Initiated Research Award to investigate ocular surface health in women. This award is given to support early-stage investigative work to stimulate future major funding from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health.

Dry eye disease is a multifactorial condition that occurs with a higher frequency in women with estimates of 3.25 million women compared to 1.68 million men affected in the United States alone. Unfortunately, due to big gaps in research on women’s health, we do not fully understand how hormonal changes, especially during and after menopause, impact ocular surface inflammation and dry eye disease. Dr. Tichenor’s research is focused on filling in the gaps of our understanding of the interplay between hormonal changes in women due to aging and menopause, and the development and progression of signs and symptoms of dry eye disease.
In the pilot study supported by this award, Dr. Tichenor will investigate whether sex hormones, testosterone and estradiol, are present in the tear film and compare concentration differences in pre- and post-menopausal women with and without dry eye disease. Identifying these hormones in the tears and exploring their roles in the inflammatory dry eye cascade may lead to new biomarkers for the disease and to new therapeutic targets.
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