The Usage of Resveratrol for Eye Pain after Refractive Surgery

LASEK and PRK are common laser corrective eye procedures that aim to correct the refractive errors of the eye, although these procedures do carry the potential of post-operation complications of dry eye and symptoms of pain and photophobia as a result of corneal innervation damage. Resveratrol was tested on the surface of the cornea to see if the drug would be effective at attenuating post-corrective eye pain. Male and female rats underwent a unilateral corneal abrasion surgery that aimed to mimic the post-op symptoms of PRK. The rats either received the resveratrol drug treatment or a vehicle formulation. The Rat Grimace Scale was used to measure spontaneous pain by grading the severity of orbital tightening, where a higher orbital tightening score represents a higher value of pain. Results showed that there was no significant difference between resveratrol and the vehicle formulation on orbital tightening. There was however a differential response to resveratrol between males and females. Male orbital tightening scores were significantly higher than females, most apparent at 72 hours and 1-week post-abrasion. Histological analysis of the β‐Tubulin and CGRP in the cornea was also performed to examine the volume of corneal nerves and their peptide content. The histological assessment did not show a significant difference in β‐Tubulin and CGRP levels between the vehicle and resveratrol groups. The findings of this study does not provide support for the use of resveratrol as a post-corrective eye surgery therapeutic