Finasteride and dry eye

Science
#1

1. Finasteride induced dry eye in rats

Singh S, Moksha L, Sharma N, Titiyal JS, Biswas NR, Velpandian T. Development and evaluation of animal models for sex steroid deficient dry eye. J Pharmacol Toxicol Methods. 2014;70(1):29–34. doi:10.1016/j.vascn.2014.03.004

2. Finasteride-induced dry eye in female rats results from inflammation of lacrimal glands

Li K, Zhang C, Yang Z, Wang Y, Si H. Evaluation of a novel dry eye model induced by oral administration of finasteride. Mol Med Rep. 2017;16(6):8763–8770. doi:10.3892/mmr.2017.7754

3. Study explores androgens as key factor in Sjögren’s Syndrome, and androgens as a potential treatment

Sullivan DA, Wickham LA, Rocha EM, et al. Androgens and dry eye in Sjögren’s syndrome. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1999;876:312–324. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1999.tb07656.x

4 Likes
My story (on and off finasteride for 6 years)
#2

extremely interesting! thanks for sharing this

#3

very important exert from the first paper
“subjecting 60days post ovariectomy rats to finasteride challenge did not show any further decrease in tear flow. Gene expression analysis also revealed a significant downregulation of sex steroid receptors in ocular tissues after ovariectomy and finasteride challenge.”

Seems the rats AR was actually downregulated

1 Like
#4

https://journals.lww.com/jcrs/FullText/2011/07000/Finasteride_associated_cataract_and_intraoperative.26.aspx

2 Likes
#5

I downloaded the first article as a whole.

This is really interesting.

  • In finasteride treated male rats, a significant downregulation of ERa, ERb and AR gene expressions in the cornea was observed as 92.22%, 98.20% and 94.50% respectively as compared to the control. In the case of the lacrimal gland, the significant percentage decrease of ERa, ERb and AR gene expressions was found to be 99.20%, 82.33% and 68.49% respectively as compared to the control.

That’s some hefty downregulation…

But it tells us nothing about what happens after the drug is withdrawn, sadly.

2 Likes
#6

I have developed Blepharitis now for months one of the laest changes from this…

#7

This is very interesting. I have terrible vision currently. My left is worse than my right. My left also does not appear to produce tears/moisture anymore. The right one at least develops a little. Using eye drops in the interim. Thankfully, no negative reactions.

2 Likes