Influence of air pollution on ocular surface

Air pollution is the over emission of harmful materials into atmosphere, causing damage to human beings and other organisms.Some researches indicate that air pollution can damage ocular surface, change the tear’s ingredients, and cause some symptoms, such as red eyes, lacrimation, foreign body sensation and so on.It can also change the components of the tear and damage the epithelial cells of the eyes.The mechanisms including the direct effects of the pollutant, the secondary changes of the tear, the inflammation and the oxidative stress response.As the growing problems of air pollution, its influence on ocular surface has been attracting more and more attentions.How to prevent the damage caused by air pollution is the question that ophthalmologists should think about in the future.In this paper, we focus on the sources and ingredients of air pollution, the changes and the pathogenesis of ocular surface caused by air pollution and the summary of the studies of air pollution on the ocular surface in the past few years.Studying the influence of air pollution on ocular surface significantly contributes to the theoretical research and clinical prevention.