Vitamin A Reduces Ocular Surface Disease After Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

Vitamin A supplementation may improve ocular surface disease in patients who undergo allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), researchers found in a study presented at the American Academy of Ophthalmology 2020 conference.

The investigators sought to determine whether the serum level of vitamin A is associated with dry eye disease (DED), which is associated with chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).

They measured the vitamin A serum levels in 51 patients who had undergone allogeneic HSCT. The main outcome they discovered included the development of grade 4 DED and a change in Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) score.

Of those who were found to develop DED, those with a low serum vitamin A level developed grade 4 DED after HSCT in 10 months  (P =.038). Participants with normal serum vitamin A levels who developed DED didn’t see that progression until 28.1 months. The subjects with low serum vitamin A levels first developed DED (of any grade) at 2.3 months and experienced a mean change in OSDI score of 24 from baseline, while subjects with normal serum vitamin A levels first developed it at 10 months (P =.007) and had a mean change in OSDI of 17.7 from baseline (P >.05).

Serum vitamin A is crucial for the development of mucosal tolerance and shift of target organ tropism of donor T cells, which is important in GVHD pathogenesis, and if there are low levels of the vitamin, DED associated with GVHD may increase, the researchers concluded.

Reference

Kim KH, Mian SI. Association of serum vitamin A with incidence of severe DED associated with chronic GVHD. Presented at: American Academy of Ophthalmology 2020 Annual Meeting; November 13-15, 2020. Abstract PO068.