Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

EYE AGING

NAD+ boosting brings tears to aging eyes

Nature Aging volume 2, pages 97–99 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

As the elderly population continues to grow exponentially, dry eye disease is becoming increasingly common. In this issue, Sasaki and colleagues identified a NAD+-regulated steroidogenic pathway in the eye that supports the normal function of meibomian glands, and show that increasing the availability of NAD+ can alleviate the dry eye phenotype of aged mice.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Declining NAD+ availability with age contributes to meibomian gland atrophy and an evaporative dry eye phenotype.

References

  1. Lin, J. B. et al. Cell Rep. 17, 69–85 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Yoshida, M. et al. Cell Metab. 30, 329–342 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Yoshino, J., Baur, J. A. & Imai, S. I. Cell Metab. 27, 513–528 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Lin, J. B. & Apte, R. S. Prog. Retin. Eye Res. 67, 118–129 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Zhang, X. et al. Pharmaceutics 13, 893 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Cimaglia, G., Votruba, M., Morgan, J. E., André, H. & Williams, P. A. Nutrients 12, 2871 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Lin, J. B., Tsubota, K. & Apte, R. S. NPJ Aging Mech. Dis. 2, 16003 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Sasaki, L. et al. Nat. Aging https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00167-8 (2022).

  9. Golden, M. I. & Meyer, J. J. in StatPearls, https://go.nature.com/3roRI7M (2021).

  10. Sabeti, S., Kheirkhah, A., Yin, J. & Dana, R. Surv. Ophthalmol. 65, 205–217 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Rubinow, K. B. Mol. Metab. 15, 92–103 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Mills, K. F. et al. Cell Metab. 24, 795–806 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Ramsey, K. M. et al. Science 324, 651–654 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Hägg, S. & Jylhävä, J. eLife 10, e63425 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Anderson, S. T. & FitzGerald, G. A. Science 369, 1164–1165 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH grant R01 EY019287-08 (R.S.A.), P30 EY02687 (Vision Core Grant), Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Award (R.S.A.), Jeffery T Fort Innovation Fund (R.S.A.), the Starr Foundation (R.S.A.) and an unrestricted grant from Research to Prevent Blindness to the John F Hardesty, MD Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Academic Scholar Advancement Program, Department of Anesthesiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA

    Mitsukuni Yoshida

  2. Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA

    Rajendra S. Apte

  3. Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA

    Rajendra S. Apte

  4. Department of Developmental Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA

    Rajendra S. Apte

Authors
  1. Mitsukuni Yoshida
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rajendra S. Apte
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rajendra S. Apte.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

R.S.A. is an inventor on a patent related to NAD+ biology, a cofounder and a member of the clinical and scientific advisory boards of Metro Biotech International. M.Y. is an inventor on a patent related to NAD+/NAMPT biology and receives patent‐licensing fees from Institute for Research on Productive Aging, Japan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yoshida, M., Apte, R.S. NAD+ boosting brings tears to aging eyes. Nat Aging 2, 97–99 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00172-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00172-5

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing