Lipid helps heal the eye’s frontline protection

A species of a lipid that naturally helps skin injuries heal appears to also aid repair of common corneal injuries, even when other conditions, like diabetes, make healing difficult, according to a report by Augusta University researchers Wendy Bollag and Mitchell Watsky. Their findings show that the lipid DOPG, or dioleoyl-phosphatidylglycerol, aids healing of scratches on the cornea that can result from trauma such as finger pokes or mascara wands. These results were observed in human cornea cells grown in a laboratory dish as well as healthy mice and mice whose healing ability was compromised, they report in Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.