ArticleScientific reports2016
Endocrine and Metabolic Pathways Linked to Keratoconus: Implications for the Role of Hormones in the Stromal Microenvironment.
Article in Scientific reports, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed, 77 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex Hormone Imbalance in Keratoconus: Estrogen-Mediated Collagen Remodeling and Biomechanical Weakening.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- Hormonal Modulation of Keratoconus: A Systematic Review and Screening Strategy for At-Risk Populations.Ophthalmology science · 2026Review
- Sexual dimorphism in keratoconus: transcriptomic and hormonal mechanisms underlying stromal remodelling.Eye and vision (London, England) · 2026Article
- Sex Hormones and Keratoconus: In Search of the Link.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Corneal Extracellular Vesicles: Small Packages with a Big Impact.Pharmaceutics · 2026Review
- Investigating prolactin-induced protein and its role in modulating the metabolic state of the keratoconus microenvironment.Experimental eye research · 2025Review
- Article
- Pellucid Marginal Degeneration: A Comprehensive Review of Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Management Strategies.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Keratoconus: The Local Manifestation of a Systemic Disease?Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- The Impact of Sex Hormones on Keratoconus.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Chronic intermittent hypoxia modulates corneal fibrotic markers and inflammatory cytokine expression in a sex-dependent manner.Experimental eye research · 2025Article
- Untargeted Tear Proteomics in a Large South-Asian Cohort Reveals Inflammatory Signaling, ECM Remodeling, and Altered Metabolism in Keratoconus.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Article
- Article
- Outcomes of accelerated corneal cross-linking for pediatric and adult keratoconus: a comparative study.International ophthalmology · 2024Article
- Selective Modulation of the Keratoconic Stromal Microenvironment by FSH and LH.The American journal of pathology · 2023Article
- The impact of UV cross-linking on corneal stromal cell migration, differentiation and patterning.Experimental eye research · 2023Article
- Possible association of keratoconus progression with gender-affirming hormone therapy: A case report.American journal of ophthalmology case reports · 2023Article
- Unravelling the Impact of Cyclic Mechanical Stretch in Keratoconus-A Transcriptomic Profiling Study.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- New insight of metabolomics in ocular diseases in the context of 3P medicine.The EPMA journal · 2023Review
- Role of Oxidative Stress in Ocular Diseases: A Balancing Act.Metabolites · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Hormones play a critical role in regulating tissue function by promoting cell survival, proliferation, and differentiation. Our study explores the influence of endocrine function in regulating metabolism and inflammatory pathways in Keratoconus (KC), which is a corneal thinning disease associated with reduced stromal deposition. KC is known to be a multifactorial disease with an elusive pathogenesis. We utilized a cross-sectional study analyzing clinical features and saliva samples from sixty-four KC patients and fourteen healthy controls. In order to determine if endocrine function varied between healthy controls and KC, we measured hormone levels in saliva and found significantly increased dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) and reduced estrone levels in KC patients compared to healthy controls. We measured significant variations in metabolites associated with pro-inflammatory processes, including myoinositol and 1-methyl-histidine, by targeted mass spectrometry. We also measured significantly increased IL-16 and stem cell factor in KC saliva samples compared to healthy controls, with higher expression of these pro-inflammatory proteins correlating with increased KC clinical grade, corneal curvature, and stromal thinning. Our results identify a novel mechanism linking KC and pro-inflammatory markers and suggest that altered hormone levels modulate metabolism, cytokine, and growth factor expression leading to increased severity of the KC condition.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.