Therapeutic Efficacy of Topical Epigallocatechin Gallate in Murine Dry Eye

Objective To study the efficacy of topical epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) for treatment of dry eye disease (DED). Methods Female 7–8 week old C57BL/6 mice were housed in the controlled environment chamber to induce DED. Topical 0.01% or 0.1% EGCG, or vehicle, was applied to the eyes of DED mice. Corneal fluorescein staining and the number of corneal CD11b+ cells were assessed in the different groups. Expression of IL-1β, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, Chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) and VEGF-A/C/D were evaluated by real-time PCR in the corneas at day 9. Corneas were stained for LYVE-1 to evaluate lympangiogenesis, and the TUNEL assay was used to evaluate apoptosis of corneal epithelial cells. Results Treatment with 0.1% EGCG showed a significant decrease in corneal fluorescein staining compared with the vehicle (24.6%, P=0.001), and untreated controls (41.9%, P