DHA with PEDF Enhances Nerve Regeneration After LASIK

Filed in archive LASIK News on April 8, 2010

Any refractive surgery procedure can damage the corneal nerves, leading to the dreaded (and I'm serious when I say dreaded) dry eye syndrome.

When considering any type of refractive surgery, it's important to know that several procedures including LASIK can produce mild to significant corneal scarring and nerve damage. This is because during these procedures, the epithelium of the cornea, the micro-thin outermost layer, and often the deeper stromal tissues where corneal nerves reside is cut into, as in LASIK or epi-LASIK, with a microkeratome or femtosecond microkeratome, or otherwise opened, removed, or damaged in order for the excimer laser to reach and reshape the cornea.

This corneal manipulation is part of the procedure of LASIK. In fact, with most refractive surgery procedures there is often a trade-off between fixing the overall vision problem and producing other conditions that may affect vision, but that are less noticeable.

But there's some new research and good news about healing from the scarring and nerved damage that could occur from these procedures.

Recent studies have found that DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and PEDF (pigment epithelial-derived factor) used in conjunction can significantly increase stromal (corneal) nerve regeneration by more than 3 times than in control groups not using the two substances.

DHA is associated with dendrite formation and complexity and synaptogenesis (forming neural connections) in the brain as well as corneal nerve regeneration. When DHA is metabolized it produces NPD1, a substance with strong anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective abilities.

In these tests researchers found that PEDF+DHA treatment increased the subepithelial stromal nerve area to 29%, compared to only 10% in the control group, with stromal nerves increasing by 19% compared to just 7% in the control group.

PEDF and DHA used separately did not produce similar results, suggesting that the two substances used in conjunction produce a synergistic action.

So what's the breakdown for the average person trying to understand all this medical jargon? It's this: If the eye doctor can give you some kind of PEDF+DHA treatment in the form of drops or whatever vehicle they decide upon, it can help the nerves in your cornea regenerate and heal after you have LASIK or other refractive surgery, decreasing the chance of complications like dry eye.

And, as always, before having any eye surgery do your research!