ArticleInvestigative ophthalmology & visual science2020
The Microbiome of the Meibum and Ocular Surface in Healthy Subjects.
Article in Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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
39 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ocular Microbiota and Intraocular Inflammation.Frontiers in immunology · 2020Pooled it
- Long-term Impact of Intravitreal Injections on the ocular surface; a 2-year follow-up study.Frontiers in ophthalmology · 2026Trial
- Recent advances and clinical relevance of microbiome dynamics in health and disease.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Review
- Phenotypic characterization, molecular typing, and clonal relatedness within Staphylococcus isolates in healthy ocular conditions.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2026Article
- From Health to Disease: A Comprehensive Review of Ocular Surface Microbiota and Detection Methods in Dry Eye.Current microbiology · 2026Review
- Sex Differences and Age Distributions in Invasive Treatments for Chalazion and Hordeolum in Japan: A 9-Year Nationwide Claims Study.Ophthalmology science · 2026Article
- Comprehensive Analysis of the Conjunctival Sac Microbiome in Patients With Evaporative Dry Eye and Mixed Dry Eye.Translational vision science & technology · 2026Article
- The gut-eye axis in blinding eye diseases: microbiota-driven immune dysregulation and immunomodulatory therapies.International ophthalmology · 2025Review
- Sodium butyrate modulates ocular surface microbiome and attenuates inflammation of meibomian gland dysfunction in ApoEMicrobiome · 2025Article
- A framework of biomarkers for visual system aging: a consensus statement by the Aging Biomarker Consortium.Life medicine · 2025Article
- Microbial Interconnections in One Health: A Critical Nexus Between Companion Animals and Human Microbiomes.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- The microbiome and the eye: a new era in ophthalmology.Eye (London, England) · 2025Review
- Sequencing the ocular surface microbiome: a review of methodological practices and considerations.Frontiers in ophthalmology · 2025Review
- Comparison of the Skin Microbiota in the Periocular Region between Patients with Inflammatory Skin Diseases and Healthy Participants: A Preliminary Study.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Dual Role ofMicroorganisms · 2024Article
- Lid Margin Microbiome in Stevens-Johnson Syndrome Patients With Lid Margin Keratinization and Severe Dry Eye Disease.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2024Article
- Thermosensitive TRP Channels Are Functionally Expressed and Influence the Lipogenesis in Human Meibomian Gland Cells.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Challenges and insights in the exploration of the low abundance human ocular surface microbiome.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2023Article
- Composition and diversity of meibum microbiota in meibomian gland dysfunction and the correlation with tear cytokine levels.PloS one · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the microbiome in the meibum, conjunctival sac, and eyelid skin in young and elderly healthy subjects, and analyze the effect that age, sex, and region have on microbiome composition. Methods: This study involved 36 healthy subjects (young-age subjects: 9 men/9 women, age range: 20-35 years; elderly age subjects: 9 men/9 women, age range: 60-70 years). In all subjects, lower-eyelid meibum, lower conjunctival sac, and lower-eyelid skin specimens were collected from one eye, and then stored at -20°C. Taxonomic composition of the microbiome was obtained via 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and then analyzed. Results: The meibum microbiome showed a high α-diversity (within-community diversity), particularly in the young subjects. However, in approximately 30% of the elderly subjects, a low-diversity microbiome dominated by Corynebacterium sp. or Neisseriaceae was observed. In the young subjects, the microbiome of the meibum resembled that of the conjunctival-sac, yet in the elderly subjects, the microbiome of the conjunctival-sac became more similar to that of the eyelid skin. The eyelid-skin microbiome was relatively simple, and was typically dominated by Propionibacterium acnes in the young subjects, or by Corynebacterium sp. or Neisseriaceae in the elderly subjects. In both age groups, no significant difference was seen between the men and women in regard to the meibum, conjunctival-sac, and eyelid-skin microbiome. Conclusions: Our findings confirmed that the meibum of healthy adult-age subjects harbors highly diverse microbiota, and revealed that the meibum microbiome, especially the decrease of its diversity, alters with aging and may affect the homeostasis of the ocular surface.
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.