Figure 7

Dynamics of microdesiccate formation in a tear sample collected from a Dry Eye patient (left eye). Tear fluid was collected separately from each of both eyes of a mild/moderate Dry Eye patient: Woman, 26 y.o., OSDI score 18.75, tear break-up time test 7 and 8 sec*, Schirmer 15 and 17 mm*, tear ferning score III and III* (*right and left eyes, respectively), bilateral cornea punctata. One-μL aliquots of each tear sample were subjected to desiccation at ambient conditions. At various times during desiccation video-images were captured. Zone I was the first morphological structure to be identified during the first half of the total desiccation time. Then, within a few seconds layers of small and diverse crystalloids were formed centripetally and desiccation ended when many tiny crystalloids grew almost synchronously from many nucleation sites located all over the central area before becoming contact-inhibited. These tiny crystalloids were the core of a honeycomb pattern in the desiccate. Time elapsed since the start of desiccation is shown on top of each figure. This whole series of events was highly reproducible in at least five independent assays per eye. Representative sequence corresponding to the left eye is shown.