posted on 2024-01-03, 15:36authored byRyan M. Trevorah, Mira Viljanen, Tuomo Viitaja, Henrik Stubb, Julia Sevón, Oleg Konovalov, Maciej Jankowski, Philippe Fontaine, Arnaud Hemmerle, Jan-Erik Raitanen, Filip S. Ekholm, Kirsi J. Svedström
The tear film lipid
layer (TFLL) is a unique biological membrane
that serves a pivotal role in the maintenance of ocular surface health.
Reaching an overarching understanding of the functional principle
of the TFLL has been hampered by a lack of insights into the structural
and functional roles played by individual lipid classes. To bridge
this knowledge gap, we herein focus on studying films formed by principal
lipid classes by surface scattering methods. Through grazing incidence
X-ray diffraction and X-ray reflectivity studies, we reveal quantitative
data about the lattice distances, molecular tilt angles, and mono/multilayer
thickness and density profiles for central TFLL lipid classes under
close to simulated physiological conditions. In addition, we discuss
the correlation of the results to those obtained previously with the
natural lipid composition of meibum.