# Dietary Supplement of n-3 PUFA to Control Corneal Inflammation

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE HEALTH SCI CTR · 2021 · $153,052

## Abstract

Title: Dietary Supplement of n-3 PUFA to Control Corneal Inflammation
Abstract: Cornea being the outer most tissue in the eye suffers regular injuries from corneal abrasions, puncture
wounds, chemical and thermal burns that induce corneal inflammation. Corneal inflammation is also integral to
genetic diseases like keratoconus, long-term wearing of contact lenses, and surgical corneal transplantation.
Imbalances in inflammation and improper wound-healing (resolution) causes corneal scar and
neovascularization (NV) that leads to blindness. Up to one fourth of all cases of blindness worldwide are
attributable to corneal opacities generated by scarring, or fibrosis, representing a huge economic and societal
burden. The primary cause of corneal fibrosis development is defective wound healing process due to
imbalances in the inflammation and its resolution. Currently, there is no FDA-approved drug that facilitates proper
corneal wound healing. We hypothesize that n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) from Fish Oil dietary
supplementation will inhibit corneal fibrosis and NV by reducing chronic inflammation and augmenting
resolution and wound-healing.
 During inflammation and tissue healing, it is the N-3 PUFAs (such as eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA, and
docosahexaenoic acid, DHA) that generates several bioactive lipid mediators (such as resolvins, neuroprotectins
and maresins) that play essential roles in resolution of inflammation and tissue healing. Although substantial
research data is available regarding the benefits of n-3 PUFAs (DHA and EPA) in many human systemic
diseases, the role of n-3 PUFAs in corneal healing and restoration of vision has not been studied. We propose
to determine the efficacy of dietary supplementation of n-3 PUFA from OmegaRx2 Fish Oil (Zone Labs)
to prevent corneal scar and NV in mouse model of corneal injuries. We anticipate our study will ultimately
translate in to human augmentative dietary supplement of n-3 PUFAs to help balance the inflammation and
improve the resolution and wound-healing in the corneas that are prone to develop scar and NV due to underlying
genetic causes, contact lens wearing or corneal transplantation surgery and thus will prevent formation of
permanent scar and blindness.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10393908
- **Project number:** 3R01EY031316-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE HEALTH SCI CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** Dimitrios Karamichos
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $153,052
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-07-01 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10393908

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10393908, Dietary Supplement of n-3 PUFA to Control Corneal Inflammation (3R01EY031316-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10393908. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*